LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

(SMITHSONIAN DEPOSIT.) 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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MEMOBIAL. 



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MORTAL 



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SOLICITING A 



STATE HOSPITAL LOR THE INSANE 



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SUBMITTED TO THE 



LEGISLATURE OF PENNSYLVANIA, 



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FEBRUARY 3, 1845. 



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Printed by order of the Legislature of Penn'a, February 3, 1845. 



HARRISBURG: 

J. M. G. LESCURE, PRINTER TO THE STATE. 

1845. 






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MEMORIAL. 



To the Honorable, the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth 

of Pennsylvania: 
Gentlemen : 

I come to represent to you the condition of a numerous and unhappy class of suf- 
ferers, who fill the cells and dungeons of the poor houses, and the prisons of your state. 
I refer to the pauper and indigent insane, epileptics, and idiots of Pennsylvania. I 
come to urge their claims upon the commonwealth for protection and support, such 
protection and support as is only to be found in a well conducted Lunatic Asylum. 

I do not solicit you to be generous ; this is an occasion rather for the dispensation of 
justice. These most unfortunate beings have claims, those claims which bitter misery 
and adversity creates, and which it is your solemn obligation as citizens and legislators 
to cancel. To this end, as the advocate of those who are disqualified by a terrible 
malady, from pleading their own cause, I ask you to provide for the immediate estab- 
lishment of a State Hospital for the Insane. 

If this shall appear to some of you an untimely demand on the State Treasury ; and 
a too hastily, too importunately urged suit, I must ask all such to go forth, as I have 
done, and traversing the state in its length and breadth, examine with patient care the 
condition of this suffering, dependent multitude, which are gathered to your alms-houses 
and your priso?is, and scattered under adverse circumstances in indigent families ; weigh 
the iron chains, and shackles, andballs, and ring-bolts, and bars, and manacles; breathe 
the foul atmosphere of those cells and dens, ivhich too slowly poisons the springs of 
life ; examine the furniture of these dreary abodes ; some for abed have the luxury of 
a truss of straw; and some have the cheaper couch, which the hard, rough plank sup- 
plies! Examine their apparel. The air of heaven is their only vesture. Are you 
disquieted and pained to learn these facts? There are worse realities yet to be 
revealed under your vigilant investigations. The revolting exposure of men; the 
infinitely more revolting and shocking exposure of women ; with combinations of 
miseries and horrors that will not bear recital. Do you start and shrink from the 
grossness of this recital? what then is it to witness the appalling reality ? Do your 
startled perceptions refuse to admit these truths? They exist still; the proof and the 
condition alike ; neither have passed away. The idiot mother ; the naked women in 
the packing boxes ;* but yet for these last, perhaps, the legal measures resorted to for 

* See history of counties. 



their relief have been availing. Perhaps both judge and jury have interposed for those, 
some merciful change. This relief may be but temporary, and may disappear with the 
first indignant excitement which procured it ; for the effectual, permanent remedy and 
alleviation of all these troubles and miseries, this appeal is now made to the Legislature 
of Pennsylvania ; and, gentlemen, you perceive that it is just, not generous action, I 
ask at your hands. 

It cannot be forgotten that, successively in the years of 1838 and 1840, earnest 
efforts were made by benevolent citizens of the state, to procure for the pauper and 
indigent insane, the benefits of curative treatment and hospital protection. The 
gentlemen who engaged in this object, I have learned, spared neither time nor labor to 
accomplish what was justly deemed so important a work. An association of residents 
in Philadelphia, of which Thomas P. Cope, Esq., was chairman, published and cir- 
culated a pamphlet, written with ability, which was designed to give much valuable 
information on the treatment of insanity, <fec. This was received with the considera- 
tion the subject merited; and Mr. Konigmacher, of Ephrata, was appointed chairman 
of a committee, in the House of Representatives, to report upon the subject. This was 
done with eloquence and precision, in a document of considerable length, which was 
read in the House, March 11th, 1839. Mr. Konigmacher accompanied his report 
with a bill, which passed the House of Representatives with but little Opposition, and 
the Senate unanimously ; but on account of financial embarrassments, was not sanctioned 
by the Executive. In 1840, a second appeal from the association of gentlemen before 
referred to, was printed and circulated at their expense. This pamphlet embodied a 
mass of statistical information, calculated to throw much additional light upon the sub- 
ject. The result was, an appropriation by the Legislature, and the appointment of 
commissioners to carry forward and complete the establishment of a state institution. 
The work was shortly interdicted through the influence of circumstances which it is 
unnecessary to explain here. 

Meanwhile, the evil for which the wise and benevolent sought a remedy, has gone on 
to increase. Sufferings have been multiplied with additional cases of the malady. 
Many who might have been restored by timely treatment, have become, either 
through the violence of disease, or unavoidable mismanagement, hopelessly insane. 
Many others are fast verging to the same pitiable condition ; and new cases of almost 
daily occurrence, remind the beholder that a similar destiny awaits these, if no 
asylum opens its friendly shelter, and renders remedial care in season to avert the 
impending calamity. 

You are not solicited to commence a work of doubtful value, capable of producing 
uncertain benefits. The age of experiment has passed by : the experience of those of 
your sister states, who have preceded you in this enterprise of mercy, assures you that 
thousands, through the skilful care received in hospitals for the insane, have been 
restored to society and to usefulness, to reason and to happiness. 

Beside recent and curable cases, there is yet another class, the very extremity and 
certainty of whose condition appeals most strongly and affectingly to your humane 
sensibilities. I mean those from whom, in all probability, the light of reason is forever 
veiled : dependent, irresponsible, often much suffering beings, they seem from the very 



entireness and certain duration of their dependence, to demand a peculiar consideration. 
Abandon not these of your fellow-citizens to any miseries which you can cause to be 
relieved or mitigated. 

This subject comes home to all, to every one : on this ground all alike may suffer ; 
the rich and the poor, the learned and the uneducated, the young, the mature, and the 
aged ; from this malady none are sure of exemption ; and the often reverses of fortune 
teach, that none are so prosperous that they may not need to share the asylum which is 
solicited now to shelter others. 

Through the bond of our common humanity, we may become as they now are. Let 
imagination for a moment place you in their stead, or rather let it so place those you 
love, those you cherish, those who are dearer to you than is your own life, and then 
declare, if you could abandon them to the horrid noisome cell ; and to ignorant pauper 
attendants; uninterested, unpaid, and reluctant nurses; or could you yield them to the 
strong holds of the jails and prisons, there to be companions of the felon, and the 
thief, and the abased vicious drunkard : there to be abandoned to their caprices, and 
subject to their daily taunts, and heartless jeers. I am not suggesting unreal, impossi- 
ble conditions ; you can witness these scenes as I have done, and learn too; corrobora- 
tion of these hardships and sufferings from the unwilling keepers of these unfortunate 
men and women, who, dangerous to the community, through property-destroying or 
homicidal propensities, must endure this bondage till a state asylum open its doors to 
receive them. There are some, but the number is not large, who, bound down to low 
views of the mutual obligations of man to man, and to imperfect perceptions of the 
sublime truths of the moral law, will argue, that many, very many of those who are found 
in wretched circumstances in alms-houses and in prisons, have, by their own follies and 
vices brought on themselves the calamity, which henceforth casts them out from the 
accustomed walks of life. No doubt this is true ; but why should society visit upon the 
transgessor who becomes insane, a so much harsher retribution, than upon the transgressor 
who retains his senses ? It is very well known, that by far the largest portion of those 
who become wholly dependent on public charity, have been brought to that condition 
either by their own indiscretion or misdemeanors ; yet these find the sympathy they 
seek, and the aid they solicit ; for them an appropriate home is often provided, and 
their necessities are bountifully administered to. There is yet another view of this 
subject. 

Suppose the insane in many cases to have wrought their own ruin, shall man be 
more just than God? Does not he send his sun to shine upon the evil and unthankful, 
as upon the obedient and the good ? Again, is it not to the habits, the customs, the 
temptations of civilized life and society, that we owe most of these calamities ? Should 
not society, then, make the compensation which alone can be made for these disastrous 
fruits of its social organization? Concede this, and I do not know how it is to be 
evaded; and your course of action is made plain by a duty not to be mistaken. Econ- 
omy, justice, humanity, and mercy, that attribute of the Deity, combine to direct your 
deliberations, and determine your judgment. 

Of the fifty -eight counties in this State, twenty -one contain poor-house establish- 
ments ; and the remaining thirty -seven sustain their paupers by annual distribution in 



families, who receive them at "the lowest rate for which they are bidden." I think 
it may be conceded, that in the majority of cases, defective as is the poor-house 
supervision for the insane, they are more comfortable, or rather, often less borne down by 
the accumulation of their sufferings in these institutions, than in private families, where 
every arrangement is interfered with, and from which all quiet is banished. Few have 
skill to control the furious, or to manage the refractory ; and not many have that patient 
endurance which is tested to the utmost in the care of excited insane persons. 

Next after private families and poor-houses, the insane will be found in the jails and 
penitentiaries. On this subject, the opinion of some of your jurists has been so 
explicitly declared, that I feel it but justice to the cause to give this expression of their 
sentiments place here — justifying the sentences of insane convicts to prisons, on the 
undeniable ground of necessity, "inasmuch as there is no State Hospital." 

"Philadelphia, March 5, 1839. 

"The want of an asylum for the insane poor, often occasions painful embarrass- 
ments to the courts, when the defence in a criminal charge is insanity fully sustained 
in proof. Although the jury may certify that their acquittal is on that ground, and thus 
empower the court to order the prisoner into close custody, yet that custody can be in 
no other place than the common prisons, places illy qualified for such a subject of 
incarceration. We cannot doubt that the ends of justice would be greatly promoted, if 
such an asylum as the petitioners contemplate were established, with proper regulations, 
and the courts were authorized to commit to it persons acquitted of crimes on the plea 
of insanity." 

(Signed,) EDWARD KING, 

ARCHIBALD RANDALL, 
J. RICHTER JONES, 

Judges of the Court of Quarter Sessions. 

JAMES TODD, 
J. BOUVIER, 
R. T. CONRAD, 

Judges of the Criminal Sessions. 

I fully concur in the above representation. 

CALVIN BLYTHE, 

Judge of the Twelfth Judicial District. 

It' is believed that all the judges of the courts of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 
having criminal jurisdiction, would coincide in the above opinion. From many I have 
the most direct personal assurance to that effect. 

Passing from the prisons, &c, we perceive that in the state, are at present two 
established hospitals or asylums for the insane — not including that populous department 
of the Philadelphia Alms house, which is called the Alms- house Hospital for the Insane. 
The asylum at Frankford, about six miles north of the city, and established by the 
Society of Friends, in May 1817, and which can receive about fifty patients, and the 
Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, west of the Schuylkill, nearly two miles from 
the city, have been severally established by the humanity and munificence of private 
individuals, chiefly citizens of Philadelphia. These two institutions are almost con- 



stantly filled to their utmost capacity ; or when vacancies occur by the recovery and 
removal of patients, they are shortly filled by others, whose distressed friends seek for 
them the benefits which these institutions are so well calculated to secure. The latter 
asylum, which is under the superintendence of Dr. Kirkbride, can receive but about 
two hundred patients with their attendants, so that we find a very large number whose 
recent attack, or the violence of the malady, make peculiarly the subjects of judicious 
hospital treatment, altogether without the means of relief. The only provision, there- 
fore, and this made by individual benefactions, for the insane of the large state of 
Pennsylvania, is found in the immediate vicinity of the commercial capital. Far and 
wide, over an extent of hundreds of miles, from east to west, and north to south, are 
large numbers of your citizens declining into irrecoverable insanity through the want 
of an institution, which it now depends upon the Legislature of Pennsylvania to estab- 
lish on a broad and secure foundation. 

It is not expected, it is not asked, that at this time you should make ample provision 
for all the insane of the state. If at this period you build a hospital to receive recent 
cases, and such as may still be judged capable of restoration ; if you will take from your 
prisons such as are there most unrighteously imprisoned, you will accomplish an amount 
of good, which exceeds computation; a good that will reach to and bless, succeeding 
generations ; and at some more prosperous period in your financial concerns, you may 
be able to complete, what now you commence upon a moderate and limited plan, that 
is to say, you may establish as many institutions as the wants of a populous country, 
and the consequent dependence and maladies of a portion of the community require and 
will demand. 

The importance of timely remedial treatment is obvious. The opinion of all the 
intelligent medical men in Pennsylvania, and throughout the Union, supports this view. 
An illustration of the advantage of seasonable care, considered merely in reference to 
economy, is exhibited in the appendix, by tables drawn from the returns of some of the 
hospitals in our own country. This question, so clearly demonstrated by these, needs 
no additional argument, yet it may be gratifying to read several brief extracts from the 
annual reports of several of the hospitals for the insane in the United States. 

"The importance of early treatment," says Dr. Awl, "cannot be too strongly 
urged." 

Dr. Ray, of the Maine State Asylum, repeats this in his annual reports with strong 
emphasis, and his opinion must have weight wherever his name is known. 

Dr. Butler, of the Hartford Retreat for the Insane, writes in his report for 1844, 
• k The results of the early commitment of the cases of insanity to the curative appliances 
of this and similar institutions, present a most convincing evidence of its good policy as 
well as of its humanity. They justify us in expecting, that of cases where the duration 
of disease has been less than one year, from eighty to ninety per cent, will recover ; 
where it has existed from one to five. years, from twenty to thirty per cent. ; from five 
to ten years, about twelve per cent. ; and when of longer duration, not more than five per 
cent. Belay in applying the appropriate treatment, rapidly diminishes the chances of 
recovery." 



8 

Dr. Kirkbride, of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, writing of the importance 
of early treatment for this class of patients, says, in his report for 1842: "Not a month 
elapses that we do not have to regret that some individual is placed under our care after 
the best period for restorative treatment has passed. The general proposition that truly 
recent cases of insanity are commonly very curable, and that chronic ones are only 
occasionally so, may be considered as fully established, and ought at this day to be 
every where understood:"' and again in another year's report, the same truth is still 
urged. "It cannot be too earnestly impressed upon those whose friends are afflicted 
with insanity, that all experience goes to prove, that in its earliest stages it is generally 
curable, and that every week it is left without treatment, goes to diminish the prospect 
of restoration.'''' 

Dr. Luther V. Bell, whose professional experience and high intellectual ability give 
authority to his opinions, writes as follows in his report for 1843-44 : — "In regard to 
the curability of insanity in its different manifestations, there can be no general rule 
better established than that this is directly in the ratio of the duration of the symp- 
toms.'''' 

In the twenty-third annual report of that branch of the Massachusetts General 
Hospital, known as the M'Lean Asylum for the Insane, near Charlestown, Mass., Dr. 
Bell again refers with clearness and precision to this subject. "The records of the 
asylum justify the declaration, that all cases certainly recent, that is, whose origin 
does not directly or obscurely run back more than a year, recover under a fair trial. 
This is the general law, the occasional instances to the contrary are the exceptions." 
In this opinion, Dr. Ray, of the Maine Hospital concurs. 

The directors of the Ohio Lunatic Asylum remark, in their third report, that " the 
importance of remedial means in the first stages of insanity, cannot be too strongly im- 
pressed upon the public mind." 

Dr. Chandler, superintendent of the New Hampshire Asylum, says, in the report for 
1843, that "it is well established that the earlier patients are placed under curative 
treatment, in hospitals, the more speedy and sure is the recovery." 

Dr. Brigham, superintendent of the New York State Asylum, writes as follows, in 
his first report of that institution : " Few things relating to the management and treat- 
ment of the insane, are so well established as the necessity of their early treatment, 
and of their removal from home, in order to effect recovery. There are exceptions, no 
doubt. By examining the records of well conducted lunatic asylums, it appears that 
more than eight out of ten of the recent cases recover, while not more than one in six 
of the old cases are cured." 

Dr. Rockwell, of the Vermont State Asylum, says, in his report for 1841, "It will 
be seen that a far greater proportion of recent cases recover, than of those which are 
of long standing. It is very desirable that the insane should be placed under curative 
treatment in the early stages of the disease." 

In Dr. Awl's fifth annual report, I find the following remarks : "We exceedingly 
rejoice that it is now a settled policy with the citizens of Ohio, to make abundant pro- 
vision for the reception of every insane patient, whether male or female, rich or poor, 






9 

curable or incurable. Public safety, equity, and economy, alike require that this 
should be so." 

"Fearful as is the disease of insanity, the experience of this and other institutions of 
the United States, has clearly shown that, with seasonable aid, it is by no means an 
incurable disease. That under proper medical and moral treatment, a large propor- 
tion do perfectly recover. And of those who are absolutely incurable, a vast number 
can always be greatly improved, and made comfortable and useful. In our judg- 
ment, it is entirely wrong to consider a certain class of incurables as harmless, and pro- 
per to be discharged from the institution, because it "does not seem dangerous to the 
peace of the community that they should go at large." This cannot certainly be 
known, either in or out of the asylum : neither can a bond afford any proper security 
to the public, for the peaceable and inoffensive are easily excited ; and it is possible for 
the most imbecile lunatic to take life or fire a city. It is also certain that they must all 
receive attention, and have a being somewhere in the land ; and a majority of them at 
the public expense. We therefore unhesitatingly conclude, that the only safe and cor- 
rect course, either for the insane themselves, or for their friends arid society, is to pro- 
vide ample accommodations for them, when there will be opportunity for every one to 
experience comfort and relief." 

Dr. Brigham, speaking of the benefit of labor for the insane, especially in the open 
air, adds, that "incurable cases, instead of being immured in jails and in the town and 
county -houses without employment, where they are continually loosing mind, and be- 
coming worse, should be placed in good asylums, and have employment on the farm 
or in shops. In this way they would in general be rendered much happier, and some 
Avould probably recover." "A. broad distinction should be made between the sane and 
the insane poor, as regards providing for their comfort. The former may have in a good 
county poor-house most essential comforts, provided the insane are not kept in it ; but 
the insane themselves, unless they have especial care in reference to their disordered 
minds, have little or none." 

Quoting again from the report of the physician of the asylum at Columbus, showing 
the benefits of hospital treatment, we read: "It is now five years since this great en- 
terprise of humanity was opened to the unfortunate and afflicted in the state. During 
this period four hundred and seventy -three insane persons have been committed to the 
care of the institution. Two hundred and three have recovered the right use of their 
reason, and returned to their friends ; eighteen were discharged, improved in various 
degrees of mental and physical health, and a large proportion of the remainder have 
been reclaimed from wretchedness and suffering, from filth and nakedness, from violence, 
which caused apprehension and danger, and from anguish and melancholy, which could 
only be exhibited in silence and in tears." 

Dr. Kirkbride remarks, in his report upon the Pennsylvania Insane Hospital for 
1842, the great importance of bringing patients under early curative treatment, and 
first, in regard to its economy : 

"The economy of subjecting cases of mental derangement to proper treatment, im- 
mediately upon the occurrence of an attack, has not been generally understood, or no 



10 

state would have neglected to make adequate provision for the early care of all who 
were thus afflicted. There can be no question, but that every community, not having 
within itself the proper means, would save largely by sending their recent cases to 
some well conducted insane hospital, and retaining them there, as long as there was 
a prospect for their restoration. If this was done, a large proportion of them would in 
a few months, be restored to society, instead of continuing as is now too apt to be the 
case, a charge to their friends or the public, during the remainder of their lives. 

44 This is not merely conjecture ; by referring to the register of this institution, I 
find that the actual average cost of supporting the first twenty successive cases that 
were discharged cured — from the time of their admission till their return home, was 
only fifty-two dollars and fifty cents each — while in the first twenty incurable cases 
that were received in this house, at the same rate of expense, from the time of the com- 
mencement of the disease till 1841, the average cost of each, to their friends, was three 
thousand and forty-five dollars. And in the published reports of the Massachusetts 
State Hospital, it is shown from positive data, that the actual cost to the public of 
maintaining twenty-five consecutive cases of recent insanity till their restoration, was 
only fifty-six dollars each, while the cost in the same number of chronic ones, already 
averaged nineteen hundred and three dollars and sixty cents each. 

"The expense in the one instance, is only for a few months, when the individual 
returns to the care of his family, or business ; in the other, it is a support for life, 
often a long one, and not unfrequently if the individual be the head of a family, — -the 
support of a family in addition." 

From allusions made on the first pages of this memorial, to the inappropriate, un- 
just, and sometimes barbarous, treatment of the insane poor, it will be expected that I 
shall sustain assertion by evidence. I have therefore prepared, from my notebook, some 
account of the condition in which I have found the poor-houses, jails, and prisons of 
this commonwealth, during more than four months laborious journeyings, devoted to 
inquiry and investigation. I describe those establishments as I found them. The 
sane paupers in the poor-houses, almost without exception, are well and liberally pro- 
vided for. The insane, almost without exception, are inappropriately and injudiciously 
situated. This is not so much the fault of these establishments, as their misfortune. 
Poor-houses never can be made suitable places for the reception of, and treatment of, 
the insane. Of the six well directed county prisons in the United States, Pennsyl- 
vania has the honorable distinction of containing three, and these I consider established 
on the best system; but not suitable in any respect as asylums for mad-men and mad- 
women. Your state penitentiaries, of which I shall shortly take occasion to write 
more at length, are conducted as they are established, upon the best system human 
wisdom, and justice, and humanity, has yet devised. But the penitentiaries were not 
planned and built as hospitals, where the physical maladies of the insane should find 
remedial and appropriate treatment ; nor can they with due regard to the discipline and 
regulations to which they are subject, be thus occupied. One does not know how to 
employ mild terms in touching upon the shameful injustice of sending maniacs, ivho 
for years have been known to labor under this distressing malady, to prison. 4i To 
do justly and love mercy is better than sacrifice ;" and, gentlemen, to redress these 
many grievances may be your beneficent and noble work. 



11 

In Mr. Konigmacher's report for 1839, the number of idiots and insane in this com- 
monwealth, is represented as "at least twenty-three hundred.'" Of these, it was 
supposed, -'that at least one thousand were in county prisons and poor-houses, the 
residue being supported on their own resources or upon private charity." 

The results of my direct personal enquiry show, that there are large numbers who 
are not in prisons or poor-houses, whose condition is yet more deplorable : I mean 
those who are supported by the towns and counties, scattered in families who consent 
to receive them at the lowest rates. But the result of my investigations, generally, is 
shown in the notes on the counties. I will only add, that a portion of the whole num- 
ber of insane and idiots are beyond the reach, unhappily, of medical treatment. For 
them, a comfortable care is all that can be asked, or that can be availing. 

The Lancaster County Jail is a substantial and somewhat extensive structure, 
built of limestone, but the plan is very defective, affording small opportunity for classi- 
fying or separating the prisoners. Of the thirty -one prisoners seen there in July and 
the first of August, three were insane, and four were females. Some of the jail rooms 
were nineteen feet by twenty, and ten high, often insufficiently ventilated by opening 
the windows. The area of the exercise yard covers two-thirds of an acre. The 
allowance of food is one pound of bread per day, with as much water as they choose. 
If they can afford to purchase other articles of provisions it is permitted ; but these they 
work for themselves in the jail. I saw no beds; three blankets are allowed to each 
man. The punishments are fetters and collar ; no solitary cells except the dungeons 
below, which are damp, and I believe disused altogether. Here I was informed the 
prisoners are sometimes detained, for months, waiting trial, without employment; left 
to idleness, that nurse of crime, and to evil communications, which corrupt the juvenile 
offender, and plunge yet deeper into ignominious habits, the old transgressor. If it 
were the deliberate purpose of society to establish criminals in all that is evil, and to 
root out the last remains of virtuous inclination, this purpose could not be more effect- 
ually accomplished than by incarceration in the county jails, as they are with few 
exceptions, constructed and governed. What can be expected of a system, which 
not only condemns criminals to companionship, but to the most absolute idleness. 
Neither work nor books, neither counsels nor cautions, find place in the jails of 
our country. The state penit3ntiaries are for the most part carefully disciplined, and 
there are some appliances to heal the moral diseases which corrode the soul and debase 
the man ; but society, with a strange inconsistency, first establishes the disease, first 
inflicts the wound, first imbues the whole heart and mind with evil — and then, with 
christian zeal, hurries with the spiritual physician to the sin-sick victim, and finally 
marvels that so few cures of the disease crown these benevolent efforts ! as if bad 
habits confirmed, and pollution become familiar, were now to be eradicated and purified 
by a few months, or even years, of care and restraint. It is respectfully suggested 
to those interested in this subject, to visit successively the Moyamensing Prison, in 
Philadelphia; the County Jail of Chester county, at West Chester; and the Dauphin 
County Jail at Harrisburg; and then, the Allegheny County Jail at Pittsburg; the Erie 
County Jail at Erie ; and the Lancaster County Jail at Lancaster ; and they can make 
a fair and full comparison between a good system and a bad system ; between whole- 
some regulations and vicious influences ; between institutions which are an honor to 



12 

the morals and intellect of a community, and establishments which are a disgrace to 
both. In two or three particulars it would be unjust and untrue to rank Lancaster 
jail with the jails at Pittsburg and Erie, as I saw them all; the former was clean, a 
term which in no possible mode or manner could apply to the latter. The officers of 
the former were sensible of the great defects of the system, and of the demoralizing 
influences, especially upon young offenders ; those of the latter, apparently, cared 
nothing at all about the matter. In the former, religious teaching sometimes broke in 
upon the corrupting conversations of the prisoners ; in the latter never. The jailor of 
the Lancaster Prison was very desirous that employment should be introduced as a 
part of the prison system, and was ready to promote such a change. He also remarked 
that while he took such care of the insane, as the system and the bad architectural 
arrangements of the prison permitted, yet it was not possible to render them comforta- 
ble or to protect them from the other prisoners, who were disposed to make sport of 
them, to teaze and irritate them to the utmost, and, if possible, to promote quarrels and 
rio-hting. For the insane in prisons, is no State Hospital needed? 

Lancaster County Poor-house, founded in 1799, and since increased by the 
addition of a hospital, is well-built, and well-situated, with an excellent and well- 
conducted farm attached, and a hospital, constructed of brick, for the invalids, the 
sick, and the insane. Beside these, are numerous out-buildings commodiously planned, 
and adapted to the convenience of carrying forward the household labor — as a bake- 
house, smokehouse, milk-house, wash-house, &c. <fcc. The recorded number of 
poor maintained here during- the year, from May, 1843, to 1844, has afforded a con- 
stant average of two hundred and fifty-four paupers per month, exclusive of three 
hundred and seventeen way-faring persons who received supper, lodging and breakfast 
during the year — seventy-eight cases of out-door relief are recorded, at a cost of eight 
hundred and thirty-four dollars. The salary of the steward is four hundred dollars ; that 
of the clerk two hundred and seventy-five; and that of the matron, or hospital nurse, 
Avho has the sole charge of that department, which, at the time of my visit, contained one 
hundred and fifteen, being more than half the paupers of the establishment, and forty- 
six of these insane, is ninety dollars. The salary of the steward is sufficient; that of 
the clerk ample; that of the matron altogether below the half of what would be a just 
compensation for the various very responsible and difficult duties required of her.— 
Her cares are never diminished or intermitted, and as she gives all her tim^ and 
strength faithfully to the work, if some deficiencies are apparent, she cannot be cen- 
sured. By means of pipes, from a never-failing source, ample supplies of water are 
conveyed into boih the hospital and main building. Both these establishments are ex- 
tremely neat, and well-conducted, excepting only the lunatic department, and that the 
defective architecture of the building prevents in no small measure. 

The estimated number of insane in Lancaster county, five years since, was rather 
more than one hundred. I have not been able to arrive at any certain result by which 
the present number can be estimated, but intelligent physicians, whose practice extends 
over a considerable territory, believe there are not fewer than one hundred and fifty. 
So little benefit has been derived from the gathering of the insane into the poor-house 
hospital, which, in this county, has some uncommon advantages, that according to the 
estimate of a skilful physician, there were but five recoveries in ten years, or but one 



13 

recovery in every eighty-two patients. About half the patients last August, had the 
liberty of the premises ; others were confined in their cells or to the wards, and a few 
were ranging a small enclosure, called the exercise yard. This miserable place was 
utterly comfortless, exposed and inconvenient. The hot sun beat down upon the 
unconscious or half conscious patients. With bare head exposed to the direct and 
burning rays, they strayed round the small area, or lay extended upon the ground. Not 
a tree even shaded the place, and one almost felt that it was but an additional evil, 
that they were permitted to be abroad, exposing them to the sun or the tempest, the 
drought, the heat, or the cold, according to the season. Here were no competent 
"care-takers," except the matron : her assistance and authority were necessary in all 
cases, directing and superintending the feeble and the recovering paupers. These, 
who were employed as attendants and nurses, unskilled in the management of the 
insane, "did what they could," but not what was needed. "I do most earnestly 
desire the establishment of a State Hospital," said the excellent and benevolent physi- 
cian — "the insane cannot be fitly treated, either morally or physically, in a poor- 
house." And again one writes, "the establishment of a State Hospital will be one of * 
the noblest monuments to the humanity of our state, and to the justice and philanthropy 
of the Legislature who move in it. I hope all hearts and heads will unite in promoting 
this good and christian work." 

The forty-four cells for the insane in the hospital, are four feet by seven, and twelve 
high ; though something better than those occupied a few years since, and intended to 
have been much better, they are so amazingly defective, that at the first survey, one is 
forced to exclaim at the attempt to occupy them at all. They are very small, mere closets: 
some are not ventilated, some not lighted, and very ill-arranged indeed. Several of the 
very violently excited patients were in apartments below, which should rarely if ever be 
usedfor such purposes. " Chains and hobbles" were in constant use here, and though 
I know it has been the benevolent design of official persons to improve the condition of 
the insane poor, by a considerable recent addition to the hospital, it is a lamentable 
failure; and the error of judgment, apparent in the plan and execution of the work, is 
much to be regretted. In fine, here, as in most poor-houses, is much expense accom- 
panied, so far as the insane are considered, by very unsatisfactory results. This is not 
said in a censorious spirit, but to prove that the true want is not yet supplied. 

York County Jail, at Fork, was clean. There is attached, a spacious exercise 
yard, surrounded like most of the prison yards, throughout the state, with a lofty wall. 
The usual results of prison companionship were apparent here. I found the prisoners 
promiscuously associated, men and women — some in the yard, others in the apartments ; 
none employed, except, as I think, a female prisoner. There was one insane man who 
had been, that very day, sentenced for horse stealing, to the Eastern Penitentiary. Of 
this man, Dr. Haller, whose name is a voucher for this history, wrote to the warden of 
the prison, as follows : " Of his insanity, there can be no doubt. I have had him as 
an insane patient, in our county hospital, nine years since. You may rest fully assured, 
that there is no disposition, on his part, to play the crazy man. When much excited, 
he is rather dangerous. Your physician will find him a fair subject of the insane wards 
of your institution." 



14 

York County Alms house and Hospital, with the contiguous buildings, make a 
handsome appearance. The farm is one of the best in the county, and contains one hun- 
dred and forty-three acres of cultivated land, and two hundred and twenty-one of wood- 
land. The whole establishment can accommodate three hundred. August 3d, 1844, there 
were one hundred and one men, women and children ; of t.hes.\ there were twenty-five 
idiotic and insane males and females. There is a school for the children, and religious 
services every Sabbath. Order and good management, were apparent throughout the 
establishment. As at Lancaster, the apartments were clean, and furnished with excel- 
lent beds and bedding. They were also remarkably well ventilated. The buildings 
are of brick — the main house was erected in 1805 ; the hospital in 1828. It is two 
stories high, commodious, with spacious rooms and lofty ceilings. These last are 
especially important in poor-houses and hospitals, where the apartments often be- 
come crowded at the approach of winter ; and thus, through want of pure air, much 
sickness is induced. The cells for the insane, are in the basement of the hospital. 
They are fourteen by ten, and ten feet high. The windows are grated, three by four 
and a half. Grating over the doors, three by one and a half feet. The passage is seven 
feet wide. In winter, warmed by a stove, and pipes conducting near all the cells. The 
entire length of the hospital, is ninety feet. The breadth, forty. Supply of water, 
ample. Provisions, wholesome and sufficient. Comfortable as are the insane here, by 
comparison with most of this class in poor-houses, though some wear chains and hob- 
bles, the physician writes of them as follows : 

"•They receive all the medical attendance that can possibly be rendered to their 
situation, but in consequence of the want of sufficient apparatus, and the superinten- 
dence of prudent and judicious persons, the recoveries are few ; not more than two or 
three per annum, and those confined to recent cases, where the exciting cause can be 
plainly understood from those who accompany the patient to the institution." "The 
establishment of a state asylum would be a matter of economy to all the counties, 
wmetherthey have poor-houses, hospitals, or not. // would be the means of restoring 
thousands of honest poor citizens to their senses, and their families, who otherwise 
might have lingered out a horrible existence in filthy cells, or in chains and misery." 
Such is the opinion of not only the physician of York county-house, but of all intelli- 
gent medical men in the state. Estimated number of insane and idiots in York county, 
about one hundred. 

I found the Jail in Adams County in a miserable condition. It is an old, ill-con- 
structed, stone building, a good deal out of repair, and I should think in winter, could 
hardly be made comfortable. The prisoners sleep upon the floor, on straw beds, and 
are allowed as many blankets as they need, according to the season. The county 
allows twenty cents per day for their board, but for the insane twenty-five cents. 
They have three meals, which are cooked for them ; meat usually three times a day. 
Their washing is done by the family. The students from the Theological Seminary 
give religious instruction on Sundays, both at the jail and poor-house. I was there in 
August, and found several prisoners, some about the premises, others in the large exer- 
cise-yard. Here also was an insane man — or one whose mental faculties had been 
defective from birth — yet he had been capable of various employments at his father's 
house, and reached manhood without giving any alarm so serious as to make his 



15 

removal a prudential measure. He was subject to paroxysms, and often difficult of 
control. One day, without any apparent motive, he entered the house with an axe, 
and deliberately approached one of the farming men, who was sitting with his back 
towards the door, and at one blow split his head open. This shocking murder 
inspired the family with the utmost apprehension. He was removed to the jail as 
dangerous to be at large, about four years since, and there I found him loaded with 
chains ; a ring about the ankle, was connected by a sort of hinge, to a long, stout iron 
bar, reaching above the hips, and to this the iron wrist-lets were attached. In the jail, 
his condition was pitiable; but if at large, neither life nor property would be secure. 
The only fit place for such, is in a well regulated hospital. The marvel is, that he 
was not, as scores of other crazy men have been, consigned to a state prison ! A 
young girl, very insane, had not long been removed from the jail, where she was 
loaded with heavy chains, and endured all the exposures and sufferings incident to a 
situation in all respects so unsuitable. At times she was very violent. Estimated 
number of insane and idiotic in the county, from forty to fifty. 

The County Poor-house at Gettysburg, is about a mile from the centre of the town. 
Early in August, I found it not in good repair. There were from ninety to a hundred 
inmates, chiefly foreigners. The farm contains one hundred and fifty acres, is well 
stocked, and well cultivated. There is an ample supply of water ; the health of the 
family is generally good ; the physician attends two or three times weekly, and oftener 
if necessary. There is a school for the children, and preaching every Sabbath. 
Bibles, testaments, and some other books, are liberally supplied. The keeper appeared 
competent to the performance of his difficult duties ; and interested, so far as he had 
knowledge, in the good condition of the establishment. The hospital is not so well 
constructed or arranged as the main building. There were eleven crazy and idiotic 
patients. In the basement are three ' ; crazy rooms," very fitly named, eight by eight, 
and eight high. There are also two cells, four by nine, and six by nine, in the cellar. 
They are unventilated and damp, the floors are wood, and they are lighted by an aper- 
ture one and a half by one, and barred with wood. These dens can be partially 
warmed. The insane are very improperly situated, though two of the females, apart 
from the rest, were in more comfortable rooms. There was no wilful neglect, and no 
means for promoting cure. Chains and hobbles used from necessity, to prevent mis- 
chief and straying, as in all the poor-houses, with one or two rare exceptions. In 
well conducted asylums, these are never employed : neither such instruments of terrible 
torture as the ill-devised " restraining," or, as it is greatly miscalled, "tranquilizing 
chair.'''' I have seen this actually in use only in the Philadelphia Alms-house. They 
are to be found in the Frankford Asylum, but it is believed, and hoped, have fallen into 
deserved disuse and condemnation. 

Franklin County Jail is a large brick structure, covering a considerable extent of 
ground, including both wings and the exercise enclosures. The cost of this prison was 
thirty thousand dollars. The occupied apartments, I found clean and exceedingly 
well ventilated. The prisoners have no employment, except to cook their own meals 
and wash their clothes. They receive an allowance of one and a quarter pounds of 
bread per day, and a pound of meat. There were seven prisoners early in August. 
As usual, all ages, colours, and degrees of offenders are associated ; but the women in 



16 

this jail, are in a separate portion of the building. Here is no religious instruction ; 
but the sheriff sometimes lends books and newspapers to those who can read. The 
jail yard is surrounded by a wall about twenty feet high, built of stone. A pump of 
excellent water affords the means of thorough cleanliness. The cook room is about 
sixteen feet square. The prisoners sleep, as is common in a majority of the jails, on 
the floor, a custom which, for cleanliness-sake, should be speedily done away. Each 
is furnished with a straw bed and blanket. It is a singular fact, that one of these 
prisoners was born in the county jail. The ill-disposed mother either educated him to 
vice and misdeeds, or left him exposed to associates, whose example he was quick to 
imitate. He has but little sensibility to crime or its consequences. Imprisonment has 
»no terrors or hardships for such as he. In jail, he rejoins familiar companions, whose 
tastes and habits are like his own. Here, supported without labor, and engaged in re- 
hearsing to each other the exploits of which it is their delight to boast ; they delineate, in 
glowing colors, every unruly and desperate enterprize. These, together with games 
within, or athletic sports in the yard, constitute a life not burthened with trials, and 
under the feeble restraints of which, they qualify themselves anew for evil deeds. In 
this wise are educated, at the public cost, in county jails, the lawless depredators upon 
society ! 

The Franklin County Poor-house, near Chambersburg, contains on an average, 
about one hundred paupers. There were eighty the first week in August. There is 
no school, and no provision made for the instruction of the children. There is 
preaching every other Sunday. The farm, contains one hundred and eighty-eight acres, 
and is productive. The out-buildings are numerous and commodious. The sup- 
ply of water from springs and running streams, is ample and unfailing. Such of the 
inmates as are able, assist at the farm and household labor ; but it was evident that here 
more competent help was needed, especially within doors. The mistress had alto- 
gether too much care. The main-building is ninety feet by fifty. It is divided into 
rooms of good size, pretty well ventilated, clean and in order. All are comfortably 
furnished, especially with beds and bed-clothing; but this is a creditable distinction of 
nearly every poor-house in Pennsylvania, including also general cleanliness. A rough- 
cast building across the yard, of good and convenient size, is appropriated to the colored 
people. The hospital, on the opposite side of the main building, is seventy-five feet 
by thirty-two. The rooms are about nine feet square. The arrangements here are 
incomplete and not convenient. The only exercise-ground for such of the insane as 
are not allowed to range the premises, is a small yard, about thirty-five feet by thirty- 
four, surrounded with a high stone wall. Here is no description of shade or shelter. 
Nothing worse could be conceived or planned, if the idea of increasing the comfort of 
these poor creatures was embraced in it. 

Beside idiots and epileptics, there were fourteen insane, who require constant care, 
and under the arrangements which exist here, this is a most arduous task. I found 
one man chained, for his own safety and that of others, in one of the rooms of the 
hospital. He was not at that time much excited, but liable to furious paroxysms. — 
The history was a sad one, but has many parallels. One insane woman was chained 
near a fire-place, into which she has a fondness for creeping, and there remains much 
of the time. There was straw in a box near by, where she could sleep 1 



17 

Some cells, formerly appropriated for the insane, and in every respect unfit to be 
occupied, are now chiefly disused. I could not learn with any probable accuracy, the 
number of insane and epileptics in the county; but the poor-house contains more than 
enough of this class of sufferers to afford substantial reasons for providing speedily a 
more appropriate asylum ! 

Bedford County Jail at Bedford, is a brick building, containing five rooms of 
good size, which need white-washing ; there is a good exercise-yard, surrounded by a 
brick wall, twenty feet high, through which the prisoners, at some leisure times, have 
once or twice escaped. The law requires the jailor to furnish one pound of bread per 
day, and as much water as they want; but the present officer gives them three meals 
per day, and meat at two of them — the family doing the cooking and also the washing. 
No moral or religious instruction is given at the jail; but the sheriff lends bibles and 
books of his own. At the time of my visit there were no prisoners, the last having 
taken the keys, which were inadvertently hung within their reach, and set themselves 
at liberty. 

Bedford County Poor-house has been established less than three years ; it has a 
farm of six hundred and sixty- six acres, only a small part of which is under culti- 
vation. The superintendent's house is built of brick, and is comfortable and commo- 
dious. In it is the kitchen and eating-room for the paupers, who live in a house some 
hundred yards distant. This very inconvenient and bad arrangement ought to be 
changed without loss of time. The poor-house proper, is a rough-cast building, two 
stories high, sixty-five feet by twenty-eight — it is not well planned, and secures neither 
separation nor classification. There were thirty-three inmates, one idiotic, some sick, 
and no person residing in the house to superintend or nurse them. There is no provi- 
sion for the insane, though one woman had been kept here for a time. The experiment 
was very unsatisfactory to all parties, and the husband concluded to take home the 
mother of his children, "and try to get along by managing somehow." Of the insane 
in the county at large, I could learn but little, and nothing certain in regard to numbers. 
Probably there are not more than thirty who are insane and idiotic. 

The poor-house was not clean, and not well furnished. It is not good economy to 
purchase second-hand furniture for poor-house establishments, even if it was best on 
other accounts. Much allowance must be made for what is defective in this institution, 
from the fact of its recent establishment, and the consequent inexperience of those who 
are concerned in directing and conducting it; time and care may remedy these defects. 
The house is not visited for imparting religious instruction ; no school at present is 
needed ; the medical attendance is good. 

Somerset County Jail, at Somerset* is an old stone building; I found it clean, and 
the prisoners decently clothed. Here were three insane men ; all were in the exer- 
cise-yard ; one was heavily chained. One had been in the jail six years, another 
one year, and the third eleven months. The mother of one had sent him by th.p stage 
driver, some fruit; this he appeared to careless for than to go to his mother. "I must 
go, I must go," he continually repeated. "I can't stay, I must go, I must go. " In 
justice to the jailor and his wife, I must say that these insane men were taken 
2 



18 

care of kindly, and, as far as they knew how, and had the means, faithfully. The 
difficult and often hazardous task was not neglected at the expense of the sufferers. But 
here was no form of treatment to advance recovery and mitigate paroxysms. The jail 
rooms were all open, affording access to the exercise -ground. In one apartment I found 
a man and woman ; they had been tried for adultery, were found guilty, and sentenced 
to the county jail — one for six months, the other period I do not recollect. What moral 
benefit was derived by either the prisoners or the community by this, neither separate 
nor solitary confinement, I leave others to determine ; but I think that a law prohibiting 
indiscriminate association of the male and female prisoners cannot be too soon promul- 
gated and enforced. 

There is no poor-house in Somerset county, but those who are incapable of self- 
support, are distributed in the towns, amongst those persons who agree to take them at 
the lowest rate. In some instances, I learned that they fared well ; in many others, 
neglects and suffering, especially with the aged and helpless, were of frequent occur- 
rence. Humanity and economy unite to recommend the establishment of well-planned 
and well-regulated poor-houses, generally. Except in a densely populous county, 
county -houses are much to be preferred to town-houses. 

I learned from the commissioners' office in Somerset, that in 1840, the estimated 
number of idiots, epileptics, and insane, in this county, was seventy-six. I heard of a 
good many recent cases, and was told that it was probable the present number was not 
less than one hundred. After all, this is somewhat conjectural. A portion of these 
are supported by the towns, but the largest part by their friends, and often under cir- 
cumstances of great trial and affliction. Some are met wandering about the country, 
owing their subsistence to the charity of those at whose houses they casually stop. The 
needed meal is cheerfully bestowed, and the torn and tattered garment of the poor way- 
farer is often replaced by one that is whole and clean. I am persuaded that no observing 
person can travel over this state, throughout its length and breadth, and not be inspired 
with increasing respect for the social virtues of the people. I could detail numerous touch- 
ing examples which have fallen immediately under my own notice, of a kindly care for 
the sick and sufferings for poor persons removing from one place to seek, perhaps, a more 
advantageous situation for work ; of wandering, neglected, crazy men and women — the 
last no uncommon sight — and of little orphan children, received and cherished with a 
liberal and kind spirit : — not always do the inhabitants give of their abundance, but 
of their penury, they share with those who have less. 

Near Stoystown may be found a young woman violently, I fear irrecoverably, insane. 
The case is not of recent origin. The parents are poor — and under most painful cir- 
cumstances, amidst many difficulties, they manage to take care of her at home. For a 
time, worn out by her violence and destructive propensities, they allowed her to range 
the county. Often she was exposed, without clothes, anil pinched with hunger. Those 
who found her thus, would bestow a garment, and give necessary food for that day ; 
but the poor demented creature might be seen the next, unclothed and hungry. At this 
time the father receives aid from the town; but it is for such cases as this poor girl 
exemplifies, that hospitals are peculiarly needed. How can a family of children, as in 



19 

this case, be properly managed, when continually witnessing the vagaries and impro- 
prieties of the insane girl ; and what is yet worse, of listening to demoralizing language. 
Many citizens in Somerset couniy expressed, very earnestly, their desire for the speedy 
establishment of a State Hospital. 

Westmoreland County Jail, at Greensbur'g, is built of stone, and is tolerably com- 
modious, but very, insecure, the safe keeping of the prisoners depending more on the 
vigilance of the jailor, than the strength of the prison. The rooms were clean, could 
be well ventilated, and were furnished with cot-bedsteads, clean blankets, and decent 
benches or chairs. At the time of my visit there were but two prisoners, one, an insane 
man, very difficult of control, and very dangerous and violent at times. He was 
altogether unmanageable at home, and public and private safety made it a duty, in 
default of a hospital, to place him in the jail. 

Westmoreland County has no poor-house ; the poor are distributed where they can 
be most cheaply supported. The number of the insane could not be satisfactorily ascer- 
tained. I heard of various suffering cases of crazy persons, and of idiots and epileptics, 
through medical practitioners. I encountered one on my way from Greensburg, who 
was diligently employed in destroying a hay-stack. There were only females about the 
house, and as these could not control him, he was necessarily suffered to finish his 
mischievous work. 

I regret that I cannot refer to the Jail of Fayette County, in Uniontown, in other 
than terms of unqualified censure. The building is old, ill-constructed, and out of 
repair. This, comparatively, is of little consequence. It was dirty, ill-kept, and 
neglected. A wall, nearly twenty-five feet high, plastered within, surrounded the 
exercise- yard. There were no criminal prisoners : the only occupants of the jail apart- 
ments, when I was there in August, were two madmen, in chains; if the rats, of which 
I heard some intimation, are not included in the category. The men were chained 
and in separate rooms, or one in a passage and the other in a room, apart for their 
mutual safety. I did not see their food, and know nothing of its quantity or quality. 
T saw no bedstead, nor any furniture. The man in the outer room, or passage, was 
somewhat cleaner than the other, but I must be excused from entering upon special 
details ; the other was covered with soot, and coal-dust, and dirt, and was extended upon 
the floor, clanking his chains, and beating his head, shouting and singing. Here fell 
no ray of comfort, hope, or consolation. One of these men is decidedly homicidal, 
and, with the exception of a short interval, has been, I was informed, in prison fifteen 
years. On one occasion, becoming violently excited at seeing an intoxicated man put 
into his room, and possibly provoked by him, for no one knows how it was, he 
fell upon and murdered him in the most shocking manner. When the keeper came to 
visit his prisoners, a horrible spectacle presented itself — the murdered drunkard, man- 
gled and lifeless : the madman exulting in the deed and covered with the blood of his 
victim ! He also when at large burned a building. 

The other man has been insane about seven years. Both are dangerous, and are 
subject to paroxysms of fury. Every person must comprehend something of the diffi- 
culties of taking care of the insane ; but all know, likewise, that humane efforts can 
spare them much degradation and suffering, even in a prison. 



20 

The Poor-house of Fayette County is a mile or two from Uniontown. I learned 
that much improvement had been made in the domestic arrangements within a few 
years. The superintendent and his family appeared much interested, and desirous of 
performing their duty; but the building is not well planned, and prevents such classifi- 
cation and suitable separation as the comfort of the inmates and propriety require, The 
house is too small for the numbers it receives. In August there were seventy-two 
inmates, and of these rather more than one-eighth were foreigners. The number of 
men and women were nearly equal; there were but four children, of course no school. 
Of late no religious services, and rarely visited for the purpose of moral influence. 
Here were two deaf and dumb, four blind, and an uncommonly large proportion of the 
inmates of infirm mind, simple, idiotic, and epileptic. Four were violently insane, 
requiring chains. No suitable apartment in the establishment for these, even allowing 
the poor-house to be a suitable place. Something should be done at once to enable the 
superintendent to carry out more properly the objects of the institution. A large, well- 
ventilated, well -furnished building seems imperatively necessary for a hospital for the 
sick, and the most infirm of the old people. At all events, such additions should be 
made that it may not be regarded as necessary to place numbers of aged, sick, men 
and women together in confined, crowded lodging-rooms! Considering all the difficul- 
ties of managing such an establishment, the wonder is that it appeared so well, and 
this could have been only through a very diligent care on the part of the mistress of the 
house. 

Greene County Jail, at JVaynesburg, is constructed of stone, and is very strongly 
built; it is small, but larger than the wants of the county make necessary. It is 
entirely unenclosed, the doors were all open ; there were no prisoners ; and I made my 
way towards it through a rank growth of stramonium and tall weeds, which sufficiently 
indicated the infrequent use of the building. The path was quite obliterated. 

In this county is no poor-house — the poor are placed with those who will take them 
at the lowest cost. The ascertained number of idiots, epileptics, and insane in the 
county, is from fifty-five to sixty, of which the largest part are idiots and imbeciles. 
Two cases of cruel abuse of an insane man and an epileptic youth were related to me 
by a practising physician. Some time since, an insane man was committed to the jail 
on a criminal charge. Another is often made intoxicated at the taverns, to afford sport 
to the idle and vicious. Another, still, who has been insane six years, the physician 
assured me he believed would have been perfectly cured if he could have had the benefit 
of hospital treatment. And so it is, that for want of a liberal, well-conducted institu- 
tion, every year increases the class of incurables, and deprives the state of useful 
citizens, and families of comfort and the means of support. 

Washington County Jail, at Washington, is a large stone building, enclosed by a 
high stone wall, including an exercise-yard, in which I found congregated the old and 
the young, black and white, men and women, and babies. And beside these, charged 
with petty and with criminal offences, an insane man, whose fate it was to be asso- 
ciated with thieves and felons, "for he was crazy and not safe to be at large." He 
had property, the interest of which paid his expenses here, but was insufficient to meet 
hospital charges. The construction of this jail is not such as to permit much classifica- 



21 

tion. The sheriff appeared quite sensible of the disadvantages to which the place was 
subject, and said "that having but one exercise-ground, of course, they must all be to- 
gether, in the cells and out, till lock-up hours." The grand jury, in 1842, called public 
attention to this subject, representing "the propriety of so remodelling the jail-yard, and 
the jail, that the female prisoners may be kept entirely separate from the males." 
This, which was meeting but half the evil, was again adverted to in 1843, but it was 
added, that "having visited the jail, they found the prisoners well-cared for, and the 
rooms furnished with bibles, in accordance with recommendation." We fear the bibles 
have been studied to little profit, while so many adverse circumstances were allowed to 
warp the mind, and tempt to misconduct. The last presentation of the jury on this 
abuse, was in August, 1844, and still nothing was said upon the subject of classifica- 
tion and employment. I found the jail cleanly swept and aired, and some of the rooms 
very clean. The prisoners were amusing themselves with games, talking, story-telling, 
and such like modes of passing time and cultivating the morals. 

The County Alms-house is several miles from Washington. It is a large brick 
building, founded about twelve years since. Attached, is a valuable farm, of nearly one 
hundred and seventy five acres. This, I understand, was managed to the entire satis- 
faction of the county officers. The house is not planned conveniently for the classifica- 
tion of the occupants. A thorough cleansing was in progress, and such of the inmates 
as were able, were variously and industriously employed. There were seventy paupers, 
eight of which were children. Seven were insane. A considerable number idiotic, 
and others epileptic and imbecile. There is no school, and preaching is heard aboutf 
once a month. The physician is rarely called ; it having been decided that "except in 
violent cases," the master of the house, who is an excellent farmer and blacksmith, 
should add to his various duties and professions, that of medical practitioner. There 
were four insane females, in close confinement, in August. One in a small building, 
remote from the house, in a field. She was placed there on account of being " exceed- 
ingly noisy, screaming and shouting, so that nobody could rest !" A lame man, who 
I understood to be her husband, had it in charge to take her food to her. The room she 
was in, was clean; she was also cleanly and comfortably dressed, and at this time, also 
quiet. In the large yard, common to all the inmates of the establishment, was a small 
building, consisting of a single room, perhaps twelve by fourteen feet. I did not mea- 
sure it. At one end was a door. At the opposite, a sashed window, containing twelve 
panes of glass, I think. On one side, were two windows of the same size. It being a 
hot day, two were opened, fronting the most frequented part of the house and yard. I 
looked in, as requested, and saw first, a young woman apparently demented, standing 
upon a sack of straw. At first, I thought there was no other occupant ; but a little to 
the right, somewhat concealed from view, as I was at first placed, I discovered a woman 
of middle age, seated on some straw in a packing-box — and in a state of entire nudity. 
On the opposite side of the room, stood a similar box, which at first, I supposed to be 
empty ; but the sound of voices, roused a female. She lay coiled up. I cannot im- 
agine how she could have contracted herself into so small a space. Some straw, too, 
was in this box, and excepting that, she had neither clothing nor covering of any sort 
or description. Nor was there any in the room of any kind. Wholly unconscious 
of exposure, these shamefully neglected maniacs roved about the room, seeming to 



22 

shrink, yet too much lost to comprehend, into what bitter degradation they had fallen, and 
to what insensible guardians they were consigned. The boxes into which, now and 
then, they leaped, cowering down amidst the straw, were such as are seen at almost 
every door of an English goods store. They were of rough board, about three feet 
long, by two and a half wide, and deep. And this was here, here in Washington county, 
where, in 1839, it was officially announced, " that the insane of this county are so well 
provided for, that a state hospital would be useless ;" and further, " the county has it in 
contemplation to fit up a building, already erected, for the crazy poor." The building 
has been fitted up it appears, and furnished, but exactly how long occupied, I considered 
it of little use to ascertain; but was told in general terms, that the unfortunate women 
referred to, had been in no better condition for several years. 

That the intolerable grossness and barbarity of this personal exposure, was neither 
transient nor accidental, I am assured by the concession of persons on the premises, 
and by gentlemen who had visited the poor-house by chance, before I came to Wash- 
ington. I am sorry to employ strong expressions ; I am sorry to censure any persons ; 
but for this monstrous outrage on decency and morals, I can find neither palliation nor 
apology. What shall we say? Here are boxes three feet long, indeed, — a handful of 
straw thrown in. This the retreat, this the bed, without covering of any kind; not 
even the fragment of a rag, or a torn blanket, or the very refuse of cast-off pauper 
garments to gather about the. shrinking form — the windows not shaded even, from the 
view of seventy or a hundred men, women and children, passing and repassing the 
room continually. Visitors coming and going; overseers of the poor making official 
visits ; religious teachers at intervals ; yet not one making it his or her business to 
bring about a less intolerable state of things. But one must turn from this subject — 
rather let those ponder on it. on whom depends the establishment of an institution that 
shall spare such scenes, and rescue from such barbarisms. I have but to add, that the 
week following my visit, the grand jury made presentment to the court, then in session, 
that these facts communicated to that official body, were true: "And that we will not 
urge further reasons than the facts referred to, as in their opinion, they are sufficient to 
induce every person to come to the same opinion;" "and they do most earnestly 
recommend," &c. &c. I have not learned if the representations and recommendations 
made last August, have taken practical effect; nor have I used any pains to learn the 
numbers or condition of the insane in the county at large. If the directors of the 
county-house can have neither desired nor executed more salutary plans for the physical 
and mental treatment of the insane, than those I witnessed, after twelve year's trial, I 
cannot suppose so rapid progress has been made, as to render future hospital-care 
unneeded, or the public interference and protection uncalled for, or untimely. 

Allegheny County Jail, at Pittsburg, is a handsome and costly structure, built of 
stone, and stands immediately adjacent to, and connected with, the court-house. Brought 
into such proximity to the halts of justice, it was but reasonable to look for correspond- 
ing advantages. 

This jail combines all the faults and abuses of the worst county prisons in this state, 
or in the United States. Hoping to find something redeeming in its earlier discipline 
and government, I deliberately and patiently entered upon investigation, but the nature 



23 

of the revelations these inquiries brought to light, obliged me to relinquish the 
work to those whose more immediate duty it is to bring about a reformation. The 
prison was built in view of the separate imprisonment, classification, and employment 
of offenders ; instead of which, I found transgressors of all ages, colours, sexes and 
degrees, promiscuously associated : little boys listening greedily to gray-headed, time 
and crime-hardened convicts; the youthful transgressor learning new lessons of iniquity, 
from those whose vices only kept pace with their crimes ; here the sick were unattend- 
ed, the ignorant untaught, the repentant (if any) unencouraged, and the insane forgotten. 
The area, stairs, and passages were unscrubbed and unswept; the cells and beds yet 
worse, uncleansed; and some of them perfectly intolerable through foul air and negli- 
gence. If it had been the deliberate purpose of the citizens of Allegheny county to 
establish a school for the inculcation of vice, and obliteration of every virtue, I can- 
not conceive that any means they could have devised, would more certainly have 
secured these results, than those I found in full operation in the jail last August. On 
my second visit, things wore a little better outward aspect, so far as the use of the 
broom, some clean blankets, and somewhat more decently arranged apparel, were con- 
sidered. This, the work of an hour, was to last but a day: the visit was prepared 
for. The ample leisure of the prisoners afforded opportunity for various little works 
of skill and ingenuity for facilitating oral communication, when by night all, or by day 
a part, should be locked into the cells. The pastime particularly referred to, was cut- 
ting the doors in pieces, or rather cutting such apertures through them, as in default of 
clairvoyance assisted vision and promoted a social feeling, by increasing facilities for 
conversation. I was somewhat struck with the remark of one of the prisoners, a 
forger, and a man of some education, though he had failed in the use of its advan- 
tages — "a man who comes here will lose all respect for the law, and for those who 
administer it; and all respect for the officers and those who appoint them; and he 
will go out indifferent to every restraint, and it is a chance if he does not believe him- 
self as good as those who are instrumental in bringing him here." " You may learn 
here," said another, "every thing that people outside call bad; and you may look long 
enough for the good, and not find it at last." At one time, there had been religious 
teaching by preaching on the Sabbath; but a very respectable pious clergyman told me 
he had relinquished the work from the conviction, that where evil conduct, through 
want of a good system of discipline so prevailed, it was wholly unavailing to offer 
occasional instruction. Dauphin County Jail affords a model upon which the Allegheny 
County Prison can be reformed and remodelled. I know, some of the most intelligent 
of the citizens of Pittsburg, are earnest to carry out a change, which, if it be not fruit- 
ful of great good, shall at least not permit such an increase of positive evil. Attention 
once directed to these monstrous abuses, reformation will be certain to follow in Alle- 
heny County Jail. 

It is a relief to turn from this to other public institutions of Pittsburg : the Orphans' 
Asylum situated in Allegheny city, is a charity which rescues many unprotected 
children from early crime, and saves some from the jail. This institution, so creditable 
to those who support it, and to the good matron who directs it, is well ordered 
throughout, 



24 

The Poor-house of Pittsburgh soon to be replaced by a more commodious estab- 
lishment, is also in Allegheny city. I found it comfortably arranged, and neat. The 
two insane of the fifteen inmates, were kindly looked after. The entire number of 
epileptics, insane and idiotic in this county, was computed to be not less than seventy- 
five, and might be more. 

Allegheny County has no poor-house, but the poor in most of the townships are 
distributed as is customary in other counties. 

Of the Western Penitentiary, I shall speak elsewhere ; but I cannot refrain from say- 
ing here, that it is one of the most excellently governed prisons I have ever visited. I took 
sufficient time to see all the prisoners, and to learn the whole state of the institution. 
It is honorable to the county and the state, and creditable to the warden, Major Beckham, 
to whose judgment and fidelity, its prosperity is mainly to be ascribed. The moral 
instructor is greatly interested in his work, and diligent in the discharge of his duties. 
Here, as is universal in the state prisons, are found the insane and imbecile. Some 
were so when committed, and in others, the disease has been developed in prison. — 
They are all kindly treated, so far as a prison affords such influences for that class of 
prisoners; but these never should be left in a prison, much less sent there while labor- 
ing under this malady, as I have proved beyond doubt, has been the case in many 
instances. 

It is to be hoped that the jurisprudence of insanity will receive more effectual, and 
serious consideration than it has hitherto done in this, and the United States generally ; 
excepting, latterly in New York, more lately still in Massachusetts, and earlier than 
either, in Louisiana. 

Beaver County Jail, at Beaver, is built of stone, and has four rooms, two above, 
and two below ; there is a small yard protected by a wall twenty feet high. The rooms 
are about eighteen feet by eighteen, and nine feet high. The prison is out of repair, in- 
secure and inconvenient. The prisoners were all together ; a child, the middle aged, and 
the man of gray hairs. The boy had been committed on a charge of petty larceny, and 
probably was guilty. When he is enlarged, he will no doubt come upon the commu- 
nity accomplished in the knowledge of vice and crime. Society gives him this educa- 
tion, at the free school of the county, and in acknowledgment of the obligation, he will 
undoubtedly practice what it has taught. The offender against social and civil law, once 
committed to a jail, and forced upon the society of other offenders, imbibes a taste for 
more grave transgressions than he has heretofore contemplated. Here are no restraints 
that check the influence of "corrupt communications;" here is no employment either 
for the hands or the mind, helping to strengthen better habits and confirm better resolu- 
tions; here is no rmral or religious teacher, kindly and seriously, impressing "line upon 
line, and precept upon precept;" here is no partition, separating the hardy and mature 
criminal, from him who has but newly yielded to temptation ; here, in short, society 
seems deliberately to abandon its victim, giving him over to every evil work. I believe 
no better work can be done in our country than those may accomplish who undertake 
the establishment of a new, and more just jail system. I am not aware that there are 
above six disciplined jails in the United States ; and I do know that most of them have 



25 

trained many a convict for the penitentiaries. Whether is it better to prevent disease, 
or leave it to be not only sure in its attacks, but deadly in its consequences ? 

Beaver County has no poor-house. The poor are supported by the several towns, 
in families where they can be boarded at the lowest cost. Many sad accounts of the 
neglects and privations to which this system gives rise, reached me from undoubted 
sources. Many of the more reflecting and benevolent citizens in Beaver county, are 
earnest to bring about an effectual change, by establishing a county-house. The ques- 
tion has been discussed for some time, but in August no results had been reached of a 
definite character. 

The intelligent medical men are all in favor of it ; this follows of course, as their pro- 
fession makes them acquainted with injuries and aggressions, which often fail to reach 
the ear of those whose duty it would be to prevent their repetition. A carefully 
planned, well-managed county poor-house, produces great benefits ; while the want of 
one often greatly aggravates the misfortunes and miseries of the poor and the infirm. 

Butler County Jail, at Butler, is old and out of repair, but well-ordered. The 
rooms were decently furnished : the prisoners decently clean, but all associated, and 
without employment. Here was one insane man, who was often violent and 
dangerous. 

Butler County has no poor-house. The poor are supported as in Beaver: distributed 
at the lowest rates. I heard of several cases of epileptics and insane, through a medi- 
cal practitioner; but could not learn with any probable correctness, the whole number 
in the county. 

Mercer County Jail is in Mercer. It is a well built structure of stone, said to be 
well kept at present. Here was an insane man, who had been a long time in confine- 
ment and chained. "At times he is dreadful noisy, and a sight of trouble," said my 
informant; "but we manage to get on pretty smoothly sometimes." 

Mercer County has no poor-house. So far as I could ascertain, there are from thirty 
to forty idiots and insane. This is probably less than the actual number. " £ome of 
these wretches suffer horribly, but who is to help it?" was the expression of a tax- 
paying citizen, who gave me some information respecting these and the other poor. 
"We need a poor-house, and a place for the unruly crazy ones, and the mischievous 
idiots. They don't often get care fit for the brutes, unless they chance to have some 
humane relation." 

Crawford County Jail, at Meadville, is very strongly built of timber, and though 
exteriorly not wearing a very finished aspect, was within, in a creditable condition ; being 
clean and decent. The food is good, well prepared, and more than sufficient, and sup- 
plied from the table of the family who keep the prison. Here were two prisoners, a 
woman in a room by herself, and an insane man, whose variable and often violent 
state, made it dangerous to allow him liberty, unless, as at hospitals, he could be 
attended by some person understanding how to manage him. He was kept clean, 
though quite as difficult a case as that of the insane men in Fayette* County Jail. 

In Cray/ford County is no poor-house. The number of paupers is small. I 
heard of several painful cases of idiocy and epilepsy. The case of an idiot boy was 



26 

described as claiming commiseration. He was often neglected and abused, pursued 
and tormented by idle boys, and had more than once suffered personal injury. But 
such events are of frequent occurrence in many places. The vagrant insane and 
idiots are oftener teazed by the thoughtless and vicious, than sympathized with. It is 
but a few weeks since, an insane man, driven to frenz}^ by his street-tormentors, threw 
a stone at random, which killed a child. 

Erie County Jail, at Erie* is an ill-planned brick building, containing a number of 
cell-rooms, floored with stone. The exercise-yard is of sufficient size, and surrounded 
by a lofty brick wall ; over which, however, the prisoners when not watched, contrive 
by mutual aid to effect escapes. The prison contained, in September, nine prisoners, 
in a dirty, disorderly condition, altogether, and entirely disgusting. The beds, walls, 
floors, windows, passages, one and the whole, appeared capable of being thoroughly 
purified only by the element of fire. The air was intolerably bad. Notwithstanding 
the hot weather, a large fire was burning in a stove, as they said, "to dry up the 
damp." This was well enough, provided the doors and windows had been thrown 
wide, but closed as they were, it made what was bad yet worse. It is seldom one 
will find a more discreditable prison. The sick were neglected, and all left to their 
own devices. Here was no moral or religious instruction ; no employment, no books; 
only uncontrolled pernicious intercourse. One of the prisoners was said to be insane ; 
it was a more than doubtful case. It is hoped some wholesome reforms have changed 
the jail in Erie, before this time. 

Erie County Poor-house, a few miles out of town, is not well situated, nor plan- 
ned to secure the classification of the inmates ; but considering the many difficulties 
always to be overcome in new establishments, and which experience only can effect- 
ually meet, so far as the superintendent may be considered responsible, the house is 
well directed ; but the cares are very arduous, and the rooms too much crowded. The 
buildings are not large enough for the numbers to be received, and there are no suitable 
apartments for the sick. I do not doubt these deficiencies will be remedied. A small 
wooden building in the yard, is divided into six cells for the insane, each measuring 
nearly five feet by nine, and about eight high. In some was a quantity of straw, and 
I think, bunks. They were very imperfectly lighted, not ventilated, and I cannot 
think that they can be either safely or sufficiently warmed in winter. It is to be 
hoped it will not be found necessary to occupy these poor cells ; I am sure they are 
quite unfit for any permanent use. There were forty-eight poor in this establishment 
in September, ten of which were children. Here were five insane, four epileptics and 
four idiots, several of them wholly incapable of self-care, not being able even to feed 
themselves. Estimated number of insane in the county, about forty. Here is no 
school for the children, and religious instruction as opportunity permitted. Benevolent 
persons who have leisure, will find a field for usefulness at the Erie poor-house. The 
burthensome cares of the superintendents, must make attention to instructing the 
children impossible. 

Warren County Jail, at Warren, is built of stone, is clean and in thorough repair ; 
it is creditable to those who have charge of it. There was no prisoner in September, 
but I understand that an insane woman has since been committed for safe-keeping. 



27 

Provisions are supplied from the table of the keeper, when there are prisoners. The 
exercise-yard is securely enclosed. 

Warren County has no poor-house, and not many poor entirely dependent on the 
public care $ yet these sometimes are subject to neglect in sickness, and a sad sense of 
homelessness, as year by year, they are transferred from place to place, received on 
such terms as at the very outset almost assures much discomfort and privation. I 
heard of not many insane in this county. One female leads a life of exposure, often 
escaping from those who have taken the responsibility of caring for her. For weeks 
she frequents a desolate, deserted log house on the mountain, and when urged by the 
cravings of hunger, wanders to some farm house, where her appetite is appeased, and 
then disappears, returning only when driven by the same necessity. "She suffers a 
sight in this way," said my informant; "people hate to have her live so, but some are 
afraid of her, and some don't care." 

Venango County Jail, ^t Franklin, is constructed of stone, and large enough for 
county purposes, and ill-contrived enough, to include every inconvenience in occupying 
it. There were no prisoners in September. The rooms had been swept the day I was 
there $ they needed repairs and whitewashing, and if ever used some decent descrip- 
tion of straw -beds and blankets; the remnants of what time and service had destroyed, 
were scattered about. It was expected, that a man in a state of violent insanity, would 
be sent there in a day or two, for safe-keeping. It was not easy to conceive that he would 
be comfortable, especially, if not easily managed. An insane person, in the vicinity, 
lately committed suicide. It was thought, if the patient could have had early remedial 
treatment, a cure would have followed. I heard of several interesting cases, through the 
physicians, whose practice often brings them acquainted with those maladies, and who 
hold but one opinion respecting the insane — the great importance of placing them in 
hospitals. 

Franklin County has no poor-house; the poor are placed out at the lowest rates, 
in families who are willing to receive them for a trifling compensation. This county 
has but few paupers. 

Clarion County Jail, at Clarion, is a large new building, not well planned or securely 
constructed. There was, in September, but one prisoner, and he was under sentence to 
the Western Penitentiary, for a second offence of petty larceny. The keeper here, under- 
stood remarkably, the duties of his office, and one could not but wish that his abilities 
might have a wider sphere of action. In short, that he might have the conduct of some 
one of the ill-ordered prisons which have been referred to. 

In Clarion County is no poor-house ; but few paupers, and few insane. 

Jefferson County Jail, at Brookville, is poorly built of stone, and on an inconve- 
nient plan. There were two prisoners in September, charged with murder in the first 
degree, of which, they were found guilty, but the sheriff held them in such regard, 
that they frequently, if not always took their meals at his own table. It w r as allowed 
to be " a misfortune they had come to, but he thought a heap of them." There is no 
poor-house in this county, and but few paupers, and few insane. These, so far as 1 
could learn, were kindly cared for. 



•28 

Armstrong County Jail, at Kittanning* is not in a very good condition. I saw 
there, four prisoners in September. One insane, comfortable in apparel and general 
condition. Food for the prisoners was sufficient, and of good quality. 

There is no poor-house in this county, and but few paupers, idiots, and insane. 

Indiana County Jail, at Indiana, is built of stone, is inconvenient and ill-finished. 
There were no prisoners in September. It was clean; and when occupied, well 
attended to, so far as the food and clothing of the prisoners was concerned. Here is no 
county poor-house. The paupers, of all conditions, are "placed out to those who 
bid for them lowest." There are thirty ascertained cases of insanity and idiocy. 
These receive no special medical care or supervision. Several are capable of being 
employed ; but those who have charge of them, are unskilful in directing their labor 
according to their strength and ability. A case was lately related to me by a medical 
man, of an insane person who had been very highly excited, and was chained and kept 
in a cell. After a time, the paroxysm subsided ; but the rigid confinement, want of 
air, and a constrained position, had essentially weakened the muscular fibre. In short, 
he was pale, emaciated, and feeble, but eager to be let out. The keeper promised 
this, if he would work ; and eager for enlargement, he readily promised to do so. He 
was accordingly removed from the cell, and directed to load a team with stone. He 
went to work with alacrity, but soon was exhausted and asked to rest. This was 
refused, and the command of "work or back to your cell," proved a sufficient incen- 
tive and terror, to urge him to the utmost through the day. One day more in feeble- 
ness, and with blistered and lacerated hands, he pursued the unequal task, then his 
strength altogether failed, and to the cell he was remanded ; the master saying to him, 
he "was lazy and must pay for it." After this, the patient's faculties rapidly gave 
way, and he who might, with judicious care and prudent direction, have recovered 
reason and ability for a life of useful labor, is now a confirmed idiot. Employment is 
highly important and useful for the insane ; but it is not less important that this should 
be assigned with judgment, proportioning the task to the physical strength and mental 
capacity. I was told in a county poor -house, that they did not wish to have their 
"crazy people carried to a hospital, for they were useful in performing for infirm and 
disabled persons, offices that were particularly disagreeable, and which the sane 
paupers could not be made to do!" "We can cure them well enough ourselves, if 
they will get well, and we need their labor!" 

Cambria County Jail, ztEbensburg, is a miserable building, insecure, and not clean 
or comfortable as I saw it, so far as necessary furnishing and convenient arrangements 
were considered. One room was occupied by those notorious murderers, the Flana- 
gans, and I confess I could not see much to impede their escape whenever it should 
please them to go. An insane man occupied a room adjacent to, and in rear of theirs, 
affording another example of the want of a suitable asylum. I do not doubt, that under 
fit direction, he is fully able to earn his own support. 

This county has no poor-house; the poor are "let out" to those who are willing to 
accept a trifling compensation for their board. I heard of several cases of much suffer- 
ing and neglect of the insane. One man, some miles from Ebensburg, it was stated, 



29 

r 
was "shut up iu a very small room, rarely made clean, badly fed, and miserable beyond 

what one would easily credit, who is not accustomed to scenes of suffering. " 

Huntingdon County Jail, at Huntingdon, needed white-wash, scrubbing, and 
above all, ventilation. There were two prisoners who occupied the same room, with- 
out employment and without moral influences. One was said to be insane; I had 
reason to doubt this; there might have been a degree of eccentricity, united with moral 
perversion, but the case was by no means clear. 

Huntingdon County has no poor-house; but the poor are boarded with those who 
name the lowest receivable price. From the best information received, the idiots, 
epileptics, and insane, in this county, may be estimated at about sixty. The desire 
for a State Hospital was strongly expressed by intelligent citizens. 

I seldom refer to cases existing in private families, and never by name ; but there is 
one in Huntingdon county, so well known, and so publicly exposed, that I feel a 
description of his condition, as given to me by a citizen, will be in place here, and 
serve to illustrate the fact that there are terrible sufferings, and miseries which call for 
speedy relief. On the banks of the canal, near the Juniata, stands a farm house, to 
which the cooks of the canal boats are accustomed to resort for supplies of milk, butter, 
<fec. Immediately adjacent to the house is a small shanty, constructed of boards placed 
obliquely against each other. In this wretched hovel is a man, whose blanched hair 
indicates advancing years; not clad sufficiently for the purposes of decency ; "fed 
like the hogs, and living worse ; in filth, and not half covered : the decaying wet 
straw upon the ground, only increases the offensiveness of the place." In the rains 
of summer, and the frosts of winter, he is alike exposed to the influence of the ele- 
ments. There is no fire of course. There is no room for such a luxury as a fire- 
place or stove ! And there you may see him now, affording a spectacle so miserable 
and revolting, that you are thankful to retreat from a scene you have no authority to 
amend. It is but a few days since nineteen cases, from sources of unquestionable 
authority, have been communicated to me: some accompanied with solicitations to 
interpose in behalf of these poor maniacs, whose sufferings almost transcend belief. 
These are in private families, chiefly of humble circumstances ; and most of all, those 
who are connected with them utterly perplexed by the trials of their lot, and ignorant 
how, or in what manner, to manage the refractory and violent mad-men. These all 
need care and protection in a Lunatic Asylum. They cannot elsewhere be brought 
into decent conditions, or rendered in any sort as comfortable as the lowest of the 
brute creation. 

Mifflin County Jail, at Lewistown, was ill - arranged ; dirty beds on a dirty floor, 
walls needing white-wash, the rooms, the admission of pure air; and the prisoners, of 
which there were several, the free application of soap and water. 

This county has no poor-house. The poor are distributed as cheapness and conve- 
nience determine. For the insane, idiots, and epileptics, there is no appropriate provi- 
sion; they have no medical attendance, and i heard of no recoveries amongst the poor. 
Many I did not see ; those who described them, concurred in the opinion that "something 
was needed for their help, and they thought well of a State Hospital." 



30 

Juniata County Jail, at Miffliniown, contained no prisoners; most of the rooms 
were occupied as a saddlery, being converted, "till further demand for the county/' 
into work-shops and store-rooms. Not long since an insane woman was shut np here. 
She was subject to the most furious and alarming bursts of passion, and the jailor's 
wife declared it her belief that she "was more ugly than crazy ;" but other testimony, 
from competent judges, settled the fact of her insanity, and of the danger of her being 
at large. At this time (September) she was wandering "somewhere over the country," 
having escaped from the restraints of the prison. From the best information I could 
collect, one may estimate the number of idiots and insane in Juniata county at about 
thirty-five; most of them are incapable of employment. There is no poor-house in 
this county ; the poor are distributed according to the prevailing usage where there is 
no county institution. 

Centre County Jail, at Bellefonte, contained no prisoners in September. That 
portion of the building which was occupied by the sheriff's family was in complete 
order, and well arranged. The jail rooms were much out of repair, and in all respects 
unfit for use till cleansed in every part. The condition was exceedingly discreditable 
to whoever had charge to maintain the place in decent order. One room was convert- 
ed into a pigeon-house, and seemed also to be shared with the rats. Fortunately the 
county has little use for the jail, and this is yet more fortunate for prisoners. I regret 
to add, that since I was at Bellefonte, I am informed a young man, recently become 
iusane, is incarcerated and chained in this prison, which, I am sure, could afford no 
apartment tolerably decent for any living creature. Cases daily are related to me, 
which seem even more strongly than most I have recorded, to urge the establishment 
of a Lunatic Asylum and Hospital. 

Centre County has no poor-house. Some details of suffering reached me. The 
number of insane poor is computed at forty, including the idiotic cases. I understand 
many indigent families receive liberal aid from the more prosperous citizens, especially, 
near Bellefonte ; but, much doubt was expressed respecting the general condition of the 
aged poor and sick through the county at large. 

Clearfield County Jail, at Clearfield, is remarkably well built, in complete 
order, and had no prisoners at the season of my visit. 

In this county is no poor-house, and but few paupers. So far as ascertained, the 
idiots and insane are fourteen, these are chiefly with their friends ; they have no special 
attendance. I could hear of no recoveries : the physicians related a number of cases 
where at one time they tried to induce the friends to adopt a remedial treatment; but, 
at home they could not carry this out, or thought they could not, and the patients are 
now considered past cure. 

Elk County, at present has no jail, no poor-house, and but few paupers; could 
earn nothing of the insane — doubt if there are any. 

Clinton County Jail, at Lock Haven, is a small building in temporary use for 
detaining prisoners. The two rooms were in decent order. 



31 

In this county, is no poor-house, and not many paupers. Several cases of idiocy 
and insanity. A physician remarked that every year increased the number of incura- 
bles, "through want of seasonable and necessary care." 

Lycoming County Jail, at Williamsport, is constructed of stone, is well built, and 
in good order. In this county is no poor-house. The estimated number of insane is 
above seventy. The paupers are set off yearly to those '"who bid cheapest." — 
"Some are well dealt by, and others suffer great hardships." 

Tioga County Jail, at Wellsborough, is substantially built, in rear of and beneath 
the court rooms. The rooms are inconveniently constructed, being more suited for the 
secure detention of offenders, than most county prisons, but ill-devised in many 
respects. Here is no enclosed exercise-yard, and, but for special care on the part of 
the jailor, prisoners subject to long detention, would, from dampness of the cells, suffer 
in health. 

Tioga County has no poor-house ; but few paupers, few idiots, and few insane. 
I saw but two of the latter class, who were subjects for hospital care. 

Bradford County Jail, at Towanda, is an old, inconvenient building, gone much 
out of repair. Here were three prisoners in October. My visit was made in the 
morning before breakfast. I found the prisoners, who had already arranged the apart- 
ment, and were themselves clean and neat, reading and talking in a quiet manner. I 
understood, that the food was well supplied, three times a day, from the kitchen of 
the keeper. Insane persons have been kept in the jail — there are none at present. 

In this county is no poor-house, the old system is still followed for supporting the 
poor — "Let out at the lowest rates." The estimated number of insane and idiots is 
nearly twenty ; there is no provision for these adapted to their necessities. 

One insane female wanders constantly from Troy, in Bradford county, to Elmira, in 
New York, and south returning to Williamsport. When her garments fail, she shows 
the ragged gown, and another is given by some kind-hearted person. She asks food 
only when hunger compels her to enter the way-side dwelling ; and is supposed to 
lodge sometimes in the woods, sometimes in out-buildings. She is harmless and silent. 

Columbia County Jail, at Danville, had but one prisoner early in October. The 
jail rooms were in order. In this county is no poor-house. The present mode of dis- 
posing of those who become a public cost, is the same as in all the northern and most 
of the interior counties. Physicians informed me, that the insane suffered much for 
want of suitable care. 

Union County Jail, at New Berlin, was vacant of prisoners. It is well built, was 
clean and suitably arranged. In this county is no poor-house. The poor are support- 
ed as in Columbia county. The cost of supporting each individual, was variously es- 
timated at from forty to sixty dollars per annum. Of the insane, a considerable number 
are under the care of relatives. Their condition varies according to the forms the dis- 
ease manifests, and the dispositions and ability of those who have them in charge. A 
physician acquainted me at New Berlin, that within the limits of his own practice, 



39 

there are now six insane persons, proper subjects for an insane hospital, and he writes 
"to give you some data, I inform you, that beside myself, there are fifteen practition- 
ers of medicine in the county ; all of whom traverse a considerable territory. We feel 
the want of a hospital constantly." i heard of about thirty cases of idiotic and de- 
mented persons in Union county, but this cannot embrace all of the class, though it may 
exceed the number strictly needing remedial treatment. 

Luzerne County Jail, at Wilkesbarre, the last week of October, contained two 
men and two women prisoners. There are four jail rooms 5 two above and two below. 
Those on the first floor are arched. All require whitewash, and are insufficiently ven- 
tilated. The building is of stone, and the exercise-yard enclosed by a high wall. The 
construction of the prison, is such as to subvert discipline. The men and women, at 
this time, were in separate parts of the building, but could converse at will. The poor 
of this county are supported in the several townships, in those families who take them 
on terms most favorable to the public interest. The highest estimate of the insane 
and idiots, of which, the latter is most numerous, is forty-six. 

Wyoming County Jail, at Tunkhannock, is solidly constructed, and it was design- 
ed not only to be well built, but upon a good plan. Great mistakes have been made, 
and if it continues to be occupied, it will be found absolutely necessary to make some 
alterations for the increased admission of light and air. The cells or dungeons, are 
almost in total darkness. Of these, there are two, about seven feet high, and nearly ten 
by fifteen. The interior wall is eighteen inches thick. A small aperture in the door, 
seven by nine inches, admits so much light and air, as can thus find entrance. The 
grates in the outer wall are nearly two feet by two. The entrance door which commu- 
nicates with the kitchen has a small aperture opening from the area, and at this, I found 
the two prisoners amusing themselves with a member of the family. The supply of 
food is ample ; and it must be owned that the prisoners appeared in high health. But 
then they were not locked into the dungeons. 

In this county is no poor-house, and but few who are wholly dependent on the public 
for their support. I heard of but two insane. 

Susquehanna County Jail, at Montrose, is not a very good building. It was 
tolerably clean, and the food of the prisoners wholesome and sufficient There were 
but two prisoners the last of October ; one a boy, who was imprisoned for assault. He 
was passionate, and had been irritated unreasonably, as he believed. He certainly need- 
ed some moral influences here ; some instruction which should help him in future to 
rule his temper. 

In this county is no poor-house. The estimated number of the insane, is about 
thirty- five ; some of these are supported by their friends, others at the public cost, at 
the lowest prices. I heard of several very painful examples of severe usage. One, of 
a man, who, from no brutal impulse, but conviction that it was " the only way to tran- 
quilize crazy people," most severely beat his own wife — whose violent conduct and 
language created the, utmost domestic confusion. We need a State Hospital surely, for 
such as these. 



33 

Wayne County Jail, is at Honesdale; it is well built of stone, and contains four 
centre cells. These cell-rooms are strongly finished, but defectively ventilated, and 
are not altogether convenient. The prisoners are well fed. There was but one in 
October. I heard of but few insane in the county. There are no poor-houses, but 
the poor are distributed through their respective townships. 

Pike County Jail, at Milford, is out of repair, and not very well constructed. 
The prisoners were supplied liberally at their meals, when there were any in detention. 
I found the prison vacant. There is no poor-house in this county, but the poor are 
supported as in Wayne. The ascertained number of insane is small. 

Monroe County Jail, at Stroudsburs;, was out of repair. There was but one 
prisoner, and he seemed imbecile; they called him "foolish," where he was known. 
In this county, the poor are supported in the several townships, as in Wayne and 
Pike. I heard from a physician of extensive practice, that there were several cases of 
insanity requiring remedial treatment. 

Carbon County Jail, at Mauch Chunk, was entirely unoccupied the last of Octo- 
ber. It is not conveniently constructed in any respect, but I understand that hitherto 
there has not been much occasion to use the prison-rooms. 

In this county is no poor-house, but many poor persons. The benevolent inhabi- 
tants use much exertion to alleviate the sufferings of the sick and helpless. I heard of 
several cases of insanity and idiocy in the county, but could not ascertain that these 
were in particularly suffering conditions, though some were negligently exposed. 

Northampton County Jail, at Easton, was vacant of prisoners the first week in 
November. The apartments are clean, though the prison is not constructed upon a 
good plan. At present, I have understood, it is well kept $ though being subject to the 
same system as nearly all the jails in the state, it is liable to like abuses and immoral- 
ities. 

The County Poor-house, near Nazareth, and the numerous buildings connected 
with it, are in a condition highly creditable to the town and the state; so, indeed, with 
rarest exceptions, are all the Pennsylvania German poor-house establishments : well 
built and liberally supported. 

The main building at Nazareth, consists of a large stone house, forty feet by ninety, 
and three stories high with the basement. Adjacent to this, is a hospital for the sick 
and the insane, constructed with brick, thirty feet by eighty, and also three stories 
high, including a thoroughly finished basement. There are various out-buildings, work- 
shops, farm-buildings, as barns, sheds, &c. The farm contains two hundred and fifty- 
five acres, all cleared except about five. The land is productive, and the whole well 
managed, and under good cultivation. Early in November, I found here one hundred, 
and thirty-seven paupers — eighty-one males, and fifty-six females 5 of these thirty- 
five were children under fourteen years of age, and sixteen were insane. 

The master and mistress of this establishment, deserve high praise for their vigilance 
and discreet management. Such of the inmates as were able, were employed accord- 
ing to the measure of their strength and capacity. 
3 



34. 

A number of the idiotic and insane were in the main building, others occupied rooms 
in a large wooden house, partly used for work-shops, on the lower side of the court- 
yard ; others again were on the first floor of the hospital; and the violent and ungovern- 
able, were in very comfortable, well finished rooms, of sufficient size, in the basement. 
To these were attached small exercise-yards, enclosed by a high brick wall. The 
deficiency was found in the want of skilful nurses, acquainted with the care of the 
insane. As a receptacle, this affords comforts not often found in connection with an 
alms-house; but it cannot be made a curative establishment: neither those medical nor 
moral influences can be brought together here, which the wants that are peculiar to 
insanity demand. 

One defect may be remarked of this, as of all the hospital establishments connected 
with the alms-houses, and manv of which have been built almost without regard to 
cost as this ; that at Reading, Berks county, and those at York and Lancaster. It is 
in constructing the apartments for the sick and infirm, and those for the insane, in 
such proximity, as almost to ensure the disturbance of those who most require quiet 
and repose. There are times when this does not seem to be a serious evil, but one 
can have no assurance that these seasons of calm may not be followed bv long and 
distressing disturbances : cries and shrieks, which banish sleep and distract the mind 
enfeebled by illness. 

The arguments are very strong and conclusive, which advocate the separation of 
insane patients from the poor-houses. They are fitly established only in asylums solely 
appropriated to their use, adapted to their wants, and directed by persons whose 
only business is to guide and govern the affairs of the institution. 

One cannot but respect the motives which have prompted the county hospital pro- 
vision for the insane ; and not the less, that it is not all which the good of the patients 
require. A State Hospital is needed to supply what these cannot procure — a more 
complete remedial treatment. 

Lehigh County Jail, at Allentown, is a large stone building, containing numerous 
rooms, but none in very good order in November. This jail is not so securely built, 
or carefully kept as to prevent escapes. The latest occurred the night before my visit, 
when the only prisoner remaining had effected his freedom by descending from the 
second story above the basement, through an opening made by a former convict into 
the room below, thence into the passage, and so on through the entries past the family- 
rooms, by the front door upon the street! He was under sentence for a larceny, but 
the imprisonment did not seem to have wrought a very salutary influence. For he was 
charged with not having left the prison empty-handed. I understood that the food for 
prisoners in this jail, and at Easton, was supplied from the table of the keeper. 

Lehigh County, at present, has no poor-house ; measures have been adopted to 
establish one. The citizens very justly concluding that it is both more humane, and 
more economical to build a county-house, than to support as heretofore, the poor of the 
county, by letting them out to families willing indeed to take them at the lowest rates, 
but not securing or giving needful care. 



35 

The condition of the insane poor was represented as deplorable. I saw none in this 
count}*, but intelligent medical men concurred, as elsewhere, in the opinion that a 
hospital would be an inestimable blessing: to the citizens of Pennsylvania. 

Schuylkill County Jail, is at Orwigsbwg ; in October it contained seventeen 
prisoners, twelve men and five women. The latter were in apartments by themselves 
and occupied two rooms, over-heated, not ventilated, tolerably clean, and sufficiently 
furnished. There were beds and bedsteads. They go below to receive their food, 
which is passed from the men's yard, on winch side is the kitchen, through an aper- 
ture in the gate-door, which connects the two exercise-yards. Conversation is not pre- 
vented. The men's rooms were quite decent ; the size twenty-five by eighteen, and 
twenty by fourteen. Some of the prisoners were ironed for security. Thev receive 
three meals per day ; the provisions sufficient in quantity and of good quality. No 
books, (except a few loaned by the keeper,) no employment, no moral or religious 
instruction ; ample time and opportunity for conversation, and corrupting companionship. 

Schuylkill County Alms-house, is well situated a short distance from Schuylkill 
Haven; the apartments of the main building are commodious, well-furnished, and kept 
in clean and neat order, but insufficiently ventilated in the cold season. Improvements 
have been making here in the general internal arrangements for several years. The 
various out-buildings are in repair, and the large new hospital for the sick and insane, 
chiefly for the latter, indicates that the citizens of Schuylkill county desire to do, what 
can be effected in a county establishment, in procuring a degree of comfort and humane 
management for the insane. Of this class there are here about twenty-five, ten of 
which were in the hospital ; these, both men and women, were in charge of a person 
called the steward, who is, or was, one of the paupers. I had no reason to doubt his 
fidelity so far as his knowledge and ability should conduct him ; he appeared attentive 
so far as I had an opportunity of observing, but his qualifications could not be such 
by education, as to make him a competent and responsible "care-taker" of the insane, 
farther than the mechanical labor is concerned. I understood a woman was sent daily 
from the main-building to assist in the early arrangements connected with the female 
apartments. I should think a better plan would be to appoint a competent female 
superintendent to take care of the women and to lodge at the hospital 5 she might also 
assist in watching the sick, and attending to the invalids. The hospital apartments here, 
I think, are about seven by nine, and ten feet high, the windows were of good size, 
and the cells could be ventilated, and warmed perhaps sufficiently with care. Several 
of the patients were exceedingly ungovernable, and most of them I fear not likely to 
recover the use of their faculties. 

The farm connected with this county-house is large and valuable ; it is said to be very 
well managed. Here is no school for children, and religious services rarely : but places 
of public worship in the neighborhood, afford opportunity for those of the inmates to 
attend who are able, and inclined to go. 

Northumberland County Jail, in Sunbury, was in decent order. I found no 
prisoners, but learned that this prison was subject to all the objections which apply to 
the majority of county prisons. The prisoners were well supplied at their meals from 
the keeper's table, as I was told. 



36 

This county has no poor-house ; the poor are distributed in the several townships as 
convenience and economy determine. I learned from a medical practitioner, and others, 
that there were in the county many cases of insanity, urgently claiming appropriate 
care ; but the entire number of idiots, epileptics, and insane, I could not learn. Many 
suffer from absolute neglect, and some become, it is feared, incurable through want of 
remedial treatment. 

I cannot conclude this very brief notice of Northumberland county, without referring 
to a "son of the soil," whose best energies are now successfully devoted in a siste* 
state to conducting an institution for the insane : I refer to Dr. Awl, of Ohio, a name 
known there, and repeated with affectionate gratitude by many, whom, in the providence 
of God, he has been instrumental in restoring to health, and to the blessings of family 
and social life. His annual reports urge constantly a timely care for insane patients, and 
humane provision for all, whether recoverable, or beyond the reach of human skill to 
cure. 

Perry County Jail, at Bloomfield, was in order, and clean. There was but one 
prisoner ; a young man charged with murder. His habits and character have earned 
for him no right to look for lively sympathy in his present jeopardy ; but his case was 
judged of very leniently by some of the citizens — "He had only killed a poor old man 
who was half intoxicated, and who did nothing when he was alive." 

Perry County Poor-house, near Landisbarg, is a respectable establishment, having 
some good buildings, and a productive farm. The inmates, who in October numbered 
about forty, and were chiefly aged and infirm persons, appeared tolerably comfortable, 
and the rooms were arranged with reference to convenience and general order. A 
somewhat more immediate supervision might be better. The family who have the 
direction of the establishment, reside in an adjacent dwelling. Here is no school; 
religious meetings, I understood, occasionally. 

The rooms or cells for the insane, were in a small wooden building ; these were 
above ground — very small — lighted somewhat, but very defectively ventilated, and 
badly constructed, the barred partitions exposing the patients to observation. There 
were three of the insane altogether incapable of being at large, or associated with the 
other inmates of the place. The day I was there, though fires were necessary through- 
out the establishment, the clearness of the weather permitted them to be taken into the 
small enclosures, near the cells. I found them sitting upon the damp ground, in slight 
apparel, and exposed, of course, to colds and rheumatic attacks. I think in the winter 
some difficulties, if not danger, would be encountered in supplying the cells with suffi- 
cient warmth. The charge of keeping these poor creatures in any degree decent or 
comfortable, could not be easy, and would require a high sense of duty for its faithful 
performance. I have reason to apprehend they experience much suffering. 

The number of insane and idiots in this county, I should judge was small, but I could 
L rely on certain information. 

^land County Jail, at Carlisle, was pretty clean, and for a prison so ill— 
lanned, pretty well arranged. The supply of food for the prisoners, 



37 

appeared to me not sufficient. The allowance is one pound of bread per day, and 
three pounds of meat per week, with nothing in addition — water as much as desired — 
they cook for themselves in one of the apartments of the jail. There is a large enclosed 
yard common to the family and the prisoners. There were seven in confinement in 
October, on various charges ; no means of improvement from abroad or within ; no 
instruction, and no employment ; and no impediment to evil communications. The 
jailor, on his part, did all the county required. 

Cumberland County Poor-house is remarkably well situated, and has a well- 
managed, productive farm. The establishment is expensive to the county. In October 
there were one hundred paupers, seven of which were insane, not including some who 
were idiotic and of feeble minds. At that time none were constantly in close confinement. 
An idiot girl has been the mother of four children ; two of these were born and died 
before she was placed in the poor-house. Alms-houses, unless there is a well arranged 
classification of the inmates, are surely not fit places for the insane and idiots. The 
" crazy cells" in the basement, I consider unfit for use in all respects. The insane and 
idiots in the county is said to exceed one hundred. Chains and hobbles are in use. 

Dauphin County Jail, at Harrisburg, is undoubtedly one of the best conducted 
county-prisons in the United States. Like the jail in Chester county, it adopts the 
separate system with employment, and such instruction and advantages, as prisons con- 
structed on this plan, secure to morals and habits. The provisions are excellent, and 
the food well prepared, and supplied in sufficient quantities. As a system, it is subject 
in common with the Philadelphia County Prison, and that of Chester, to an objection 
in retaining criminals, whose offences render them subject to the State Penitentiaries, 
and to terms of imprisonment exceeding a year in duration. This mistake will, it is 
believed, be remedied both by justice, and a necessity which a little longer experience 
will make plain. The discipline and moral training of the Eastern and Western Peni- 
tentiaries, adapt them to effect the objects of prison detention for extended sentences 
more surely, than it is possible to secure in county prisons, where there are no teachers 
qualified and expressly appointed, to give appropriate instruction. 

Religious service is held in the Dauphin County Jail on every Sabbath afternoon, by 
the clergy of Harrisburg, who have volunteered their services, and so fulfil the law of 
Christ, preaching repentance and the forgiveness of sins, "unto the poor and the 
prison-bound." This instruction needs to be followed up by additional lessons. Many 
cannot read ; they should be taught. Many are profoundly ignorant upon the plainest 
principles of morals, so far as teaching and example have reached them. They need 
help in these things; more aid than the inspectors or warden can have leisure to give ; 
and these official persons are both vigilant and interested to benefit and reclaim the 
prisoner. 

A well chosen library for the prison is much needed ; and it is hoped that the 
benevolent citizens of Harrisburg will make it their work and duty, to supply such 
books as are suited to the moral and mental wants of the convicts. 

Repeated visits to the Dauphin County Jail, have satisfied me of the kind and just 
discipline which prevails. Punishment is infrequent, and when imposed, is of no 



38 

greater severity or duration, than is absolutely necessary for securing compliance with 
the mild and necessary regulations of the institution. 

The dimensions of the cells are eight feet by fifteen, and ten high ; lighted at one 
end near the ceiling. Pure water is introduced through iron pipes, and the cells are 
maintained warm and diy by means of hot water thrown through small iron pipes in 
each cell. The bunks are furnished with a straw bed, replaced as often as necessary ; 
and a sufficient quantity of clean bed-clothing. The apparel of the prisoners is com- 
fortable and adapted to the season. I have found the prisoners in health and as good 
condition, physically, as the same number of persons following like employments and 
of steady habits abroad. There is no hospital room. 

On the 1st of January, 1844, say the inspectors, in their report of the prison, there 
were twenty-three prisoners — fourteen of which were sentenced to labor ; four to im- 
prisonment, ("who might have employment if they wished,") and five, also, condition- 
ably employed, were waiting trial. During the year 1844, there were received one 
hundred and sixty-Jive prisoners, and during the same period, one hundred and sixty- 
nine have been discharged; leaving in prison, January 1st, 1845, fourteen. Died, 
none. The health of this prison is indeed remarkable. 

The inspectors also remark, "As to the efficacy of the system of separate confine- 
ment, combined with labor, being the most perfect yet devised for the punishment and 
reformation of offenders, our experience during the past year, fully confirms all that 
our remarks expressed in the last annual report — giving precedence to the 'Pennsyl- 
vania, or separate system. ' " The report, concludes w T ith a merited commendation of the 
warden, and other officers, for fidelity in the discharge of their duties. The fidelity ex- 
tends to the inspectors, and is as commendable as it is rare in county jails. 

The Dauphin County Poor-house, near Harrisburg, is a substantial brick build- 
ing, of three stories with the basement, and one hundred and fifteen feet by forty. It is 
generally clean, comfortable, and well furnished. I have visited it twice, and the whole 
condition of the establishment shows creditably for those who superintend it, and gives 
evidence of the benevolence, and just spirit of the citizens who established and support 
it. The number of inmates, the third of February, was one hundred and sixteen, of 
which, twenty-nine were children ; thirteen imbecile and slightly deranged, three epi-> 
leptics, and four very crazy. One insane woman, has for several years occupied a 
cell in the basement, which measures fifteen feet by six ; it is lighted, and warmed by 
a stove set in the partition. She has long refused to go abroad. For those of the insane, 
who are quite enough to be enlarged, chains are employed to restrain them from ramb- 
ling to a distance. These are as light as is consistent with strength, but yet are a 
source of great discomfort and evident mortification to the wearers. This class here fall 
a good deal under the personal direction of the superintendents. The farm consists of 
two hundred acres, one hundred and forty of which are cultivated ; a grist-mill is on 
the premises, and is considered a valuable part of the property. The food is ample, and 
of good quality. The bread, which is of fine wheat flour and mixed with milk, is 
excellent. The bed-clothing and wearing apparel is comfortable. The children, who 
are of suitable age, are sent to the district school. Religious services are frequent 
Medical attendance as often as required. 



39 

Lebanon County Jail, at Lebanon, is built of stone, and is much on the same 
plan as other jails constructed thirty or more years since. It was tolerably clean. 
The only prisoner was a half-crazy imbecile man, who was committed for mischievously 
*' burning the woods/' He appeared to me incapable of any responsible act. His 
room was comfortable, and he was well cared for. 

Lebanon County Poor-house, near the town, is a finely situated and liberally 
established institution. All the buildings are in repair, and the whole place respect- 
ably arranged, combining much comfort and convenience. This populous house had 
many infirm and invalid inmates. Several aged females, almost or quite imbecile, 
were not in so neat a condition as one would wish, but I learned that it was nearly 
-impossible to render them more so. The house is very well furnished ; the provision, 
as usual in the poor-houses, of excellent quality, and amply supplied. Wearing ap- 
parel also, as usual, good and sufficient. Beds and bed-clothing of excellent quality. 
This is an excellence which quite distinguishes Pennsylvania alms-houses, especially 
those of the Germans. There were no cases of violent insanity here in November, 
but several idiotic and imbecile men and women. 

Berks County Jail, at Reading, is an old building, constructed with stone, upon 
an inconvenient plan, and subject to the objections of the common system of indiscri- 
minate association of prisoners. I understand the plan of a new county prison is under 
consideration. Several prisoners occupied two of the four jail apartments. Here are 
no moral or religious influences, and no means for general or special improvement. 
Idle habits are confirmed, and good habits, if any, weakened or destroyed. 

Berks County Poor-house, near Beading* is an extensive establishment, providing 
amply for the necessities and comforts of its numerous inmates. The buildings are 
large and commodious, constructed of brick, and well finished, and furnished. There 
were, in the Autumn, two hundred paupers; eight}- of which were sick, infirm, and 
insane, belonging to the hospital department. Of the insane, there were twenty-two. 
The salary of the matron of the hospital is insufncent. She is a person of uncom- 
mon energy and ability for that place. But while every care is taken that a poor-house 
can give, the insane cannot, for want of the medical and moral treatment which their 
cases peculiarly require, be often restored. I am satisfied there can be few recoveries 
here, though the apartments appropriated for this class, are constructed and furnished 
on the plans most approved in modern hospitals for the insane. I can imagine nothing 
better. I have seen nothing elsewhere that will compare with the excellence of these 
arrangements altogether. No cost appears to have been spared to make the inmates 
comfortable, so far as the buildino- and furnishing are concerned. The deficiencies are 
want of suitable exercise-grounds, for those who were too much excited to have the range 
of the premises, and who were incapable of employment ; and the want of competent 
nurses to aid the matron. The whole place was thoroughly neat. It may be offered 
as a model to all the counties in the state, for poor-house hospitals for the sick, and 
incurable insane, epileptics, and idiots. Here they are safe and comfortable, as far as 
their condition permits. The insane and idiots in the county at large, I heard variously 
computed at from eighty to one hundred. 



40 

In the main-building is a school for the children. The supply of well chosen books 
is altogether deficient. For a time there was very little moral or religious teaching. I 
understood this was to be resumed at no distant season. In nearly all the poor-houses 
in Pennsylvania, is found an apartment or chapel, exclusively appropriated to religious 
services. A knowledge of the language of the people is of course indispensable to 
useful influence. Few of the inmates understand English, except the most common 
colloquial phrases, and many of them not even these. 

Montgomery County Jail, at Norristown, is a large stone building, capable of 
receiving many prisoners. I saw but one in November. The prisoner was not very 
clean, but neither was there much neglect. The ventilation was imperfect, and usually 
the rooms over-heated ; a very common fault in prisons and poor-houses. I under- 
stood the food was sufficient and suitable in quality. 

Montgomery County Poor-house is several miles north-west from Norristown, 
and is a liberally managed establishment, so far as the furnishing of the various buildings 
and supply of provisions is regarded. There are three large dwelling houses, beside 
numerous out-buildings, Two of the former have been long built; but one is new, and 
was designed to increase the accommodations for the sick and the insane. Attached to 
the poor-house is a large and productive farm, under good management. 

The new hospital, erected at considerable cost, and I doubt not, in the idea of pro- 
curing much good for those who should occupy it, is unfortunately not well plaifhed. 
The principal defects are in the basement, where the insane are placed. The cells for 
this class in the old building, were condemned by all who saw them, both in their 
construction, and the wretched condition to which the inmates were abandoned. To 
remedy some of these acknowledged evils the new cells were made. I confess, except 
that change of place may have been a benefit, I see nothing gained ; nothing can be 
more defective than the ventilations and mode of warming the whole range of cells. 
They are offensive, dreary, and comfortless in the extreme. These miseries are 
augmented by the entire incapacity of those who have the immediate care of this 
department; the woman I saw employed there had neither tact nor skill for that most 
responsible and difficult charge. An assistant, a blind man, could not be supposed to 
render assistance that would avail much. I do not know that there was a disposition 
to neglect duty, but, ignorance of how to manage, and to meet the peculiar wants of 
these maniacs, was obvious at every step. I have found nowhere in Pennsylvania, 
so bad and hopeless a condition of things for the insane, especially, for the excited and 
troublesome patients. I am sorry to say this, and especially, because I must believe 
that the overseers of the poor in the county, had meant to reach some better results. — 
There is a very small confined yard, enclosed by a lofty wall, in which the insane men 
and women, for they are brought pretty promiscuously together, when out of the cells, 
may walk. This place is but a few yards square, and so shut in, as to have little the 
benefit of pure air; it also prevents a free circulation of air from reaching the cells. 
This admits remedy by knocking down the wall and extending it, so as to enclose at 
least half an acre, but better one or two. The patients were very indecently exposed, 
and I left this department of the establishment grieved and astonished. The upper stories 



41 

of the building were well directed, and comfortable altogether, unless the needed repose 
of the sick and aged was disturbed by the shrieks and vociferations issuing from the 
insane cells, below the infirmary. This could hardly fail to be the case. At the 
Berks County Poor-house Hospital, one felt that the miseries of the insane were miti- 
gated 5 at the Montgomery County-house Hospital, they seemed perpetuated and aggra- 
vated. In the one was decency, cleanness, and measured comfort ; in the other naked- 
ness, exposure, and filth. 

Bucks County Jail, at Doylestown, is a well built prison, in good order and repair. 
The apartments being comfortable and decent. I found here four prisoners, two men 
and two women, committed for immoralities, all occupying one room by day It. 
would appear that if evil communications are corrupting, they were not likely to leave 
the prison with amended purposes or repentant minds. 

The County Poor-house is in Warwick township, three miles from Doylestown. 
The situation is elevated, pleasant and healthful. The farm is large, productive, and 
well cultivated. All things pertaining to it, are creditable to the management of the 
superintendent. 

The main dwelling was generally neat and comfortable. There were in November 
one hundred and fifty paupers, twelve of whom were confined in apartments removed 
from the main building, and in and adjacent to the hospital. The whole condition of, 
and arrangement for, the insane, especially for the men, was very bad ; very bad, 
indeed. Eight or nine were crowded into one small over-heated, unventilated room ; 
the discomforts of which, were intolerable. The attendant, a pauper, appeared to do 
all in his power to maintain some little cleanness, but want of space, and many other 
wants, rendered these efforts nearly useless. A small lodging room over the apartment, 
in which I found most of the men, contains their beds, and miserable enough they 
were ; yet here eight or nine are crowded each night, and in one bed two are required 
to lodge. The rattling of the chains and hobbles was the accompanying music, to 
cries and other most discordant sounds. The history of some of these cases, as rela- 
ted at the poor-house, and as I learned them elsewhere, are very sad. An epileptic, 
particularly, moved my sympathies. He was at the time I saw him, tolerably rational, 
and quite conscious of where he was, and how situated ; but being liable to fits, at 
almost any hour, he was shut in with the other patients, who embraced the worst 
cases on the premises. He had a book, and looking up, as I paused beside him, said: 
"It's a hard place to be in, but I must bear it." It was hard, indeed ; nay, it was 
more — it was horrible. What an experience of life ; what a living death. The breaking 
down of the mind, under that terrible disease, was almost too much to be borne J yet 
how was all this aggravated by such companionship. Such loathsome revolting scenes ! 
What contrasts does life not afford ! 

Delaware County Jail, at Chester, is a stone building, old, inconvenient, and very 
badly planned, but cleanly kept. On my first visit in July, I found three prisoners, 
two males and a female ; two had severally been committed for vicious conduct. I 
found all of them together. And to my remark on the impropriety of such mis-arrange- 
ments, was answered, that it had "always been the custom to keep the prisoners 
together, and they had not thought much about it !" 



42 

I re- visited this prison in October, and found ten prisoners ; nine men, and one woman ; 
the latter at that time employed in the kitchen. The rooms were not very clean ; they 
were over-heated, the beds as usual on the floor, and the prisoners of all ages and colours, 
congregated to amuse each other according to their fancy. The allowance of food is 
one pound of ship-bread to each prisoner, and as much water as they wish. The 
comity, not the sheriff, is responsible for all defects here. 

Delaware County Poor-house, several miles from Chester, is a large stone build- 
ing, clean, well furnished, and well directed. The provisions are good and sufficient, 
and the food well prepared. Here were eighty -five inmates the third week in October; 
of these but few are children. From twelve to fifteen are insane and idiotic ; were clean, 
and comfortable, with the exception perhaps, of wearing chains and hobbles. None 
were in close confinement; though such cases often occur. A small wooden building, 
constructed near the main dwelling, contains six cells, cleanly white-washed and scrub- 
bed, furnished with a small but comfortable bed, but not capable of being warmed at 
all; accordingly they are disused during the cold season. Each is lighted by a grated 
window. There are in the basement of the main building four cells, lined with sheet 
iron, which are used for the violent patients when necessary. There are no recoveries 
reported in the poor-house through remedial treatment. "The most we expect," said 
one of the family, "is to do what we can for their comfort; we have no means for 
curing them. " The entire establishment seemed excellently conducted, and but for the 
difficulty of managing the insane and idiotic, would afford a quiet home for the aged and 
infirm. 

It is estimated that there are in Delaware county about seventy cases of insane and 
idiotic persons. The poor-house farm is large and productive. 

Chester County Jail, at West Chester, is built of stone, upon the plan of separate 
imprisonment. The cells are of good size, perfectly clean, and well aired. The pro- 
visions supplied, are of excellent quality. The allowance is three meals daily, and as 
much as satisfies the appetite. There has been but one death, by disease, in four 
years, and this was by consumption, developed before admission ; and one prisoner 
was pardoned in consumption, who was also sick when received. I think one man, 
who was received in a state of intoxication, committed suicide. An accident which 
has happened to a few lines upon my note-book prevents my stating the whole case. I 
copy from the warden's report to the board of inspectors, the following facts : 

We had in prison on the 1st of May, 1843, ------ 32 

We received, during the year, white males, - - - - - - 41 

" " "*< " females, ------ 3 

Coloured males, ----------- 25 

44 females, ---_..------ 4 

Making in all, - - - 105 

In prison on the 1st of May, 1844, --------28 

44 The total number sentenced to labor, during four years, since removed from the old 
prison, is seventy-nine. Of these, forty-seven could read and write; twenty-four 



43 

could not read nor write j and eight could read only. Thirty-three of these prisoneis 
were intemperate ; twenty-eight of them temperate, and eighteen were moderate drinkers. 

4 'We have manufactured, during the year 1843-44, fourteen thousand three hundred 
and 4 ninety-four yards of cotton cloth, four thousand three hundred and fifty-seven yards 
of carpet, and made bags, four hundred and ninety-four.. These have met a ready 
market, and afford a fair profit." 

I visited this prison in July, and saw all the prisoners, of which there were twenty- 
nine. Twenty of these were convicts, and nine were waiting trial. They were in 
excellent health, often replying to my inquiry in the words, "I am right hearty." 
They conversed cheerfully, were clean in their persons and apparel, and presented a 
remarkable contrast to the sixty-eight prisons I have since visited, always excepting the 
Moyamensing Prison, and that of Dauphin county. Some of the jails referred to were 
in Maryland, Virginia, and Ohio. 

There were two of the prisoners above named, who, though in apparent health, were 
insane, a German and a Pole ; the insanity of the former was produced by irregular life 
and intemperance. The case of the latter I did not learn. They both were in comfortable 
rooms, and were carefully attended. The defects at present in this prison are deficient 
moral instruction, and the want of a sufficient supply of well chosen books ; these 
should be furnished without delay. Those who cannot read should be taught, and to 
this writing and arithmetic might without disadvantage be added. I saw a letter written 
by a prisoner, who had served out his time, and settled himself to an honest life. It 
was addressed to the warden, and shows that he was sensible of the kind influences 
which had been extended to him in prison. 

"Mr. Robert Irwin: 

"Sir : — I cannot but think from the gentlemanly manner you treated me while I was 
with you, you will be glad to hear from me ; and I do assure you, I shall always feel the 
most sincere gratitude and affection for you, and the other officers connected with the 
hall. The kind and manly course pursued by you and all in authority, is calculated 
to reform any one that has the least spark of honesty left in his heart. I have, by sad 
experience, found that any but an honest and upright course, will lead to wretchedness 
and misery." 

Perhaps the writer might have arrived at this conclusion if he had spent his two 
years in idleness, associated with all the corrupt offenders received during that period, 
but I hold the faith that he was saved by being withdrawn from evil associates, and 
evil habits, and subject to discipline through kindness, employment, and the use of 
books. 

Chester County Poor-house, near Marshalton^ has been undergoing a steady 
improvement for some years, in its discipline and domestic arrangements. It is a 
large, old building, almost surrounded by smaller buildings and out-houses. There is 
a valuable farm under good cultivation. Early in July, there were one hundred and 
fifty paupers, from twenty to thirty of which were idiots and insane persons. Forty 
of the entire number were coloured, (these occupied part of two comfortable houses,) 



44 

fifty were Irish, and sixty were Americans. About forty-five of the whole number are 
children. Five of the insane were in close confinement ; ten were often added to this 
number, but at times were so well as to be allowed at large upon the premises, some- 
times restrained by irons ; the residue were always at liberty to go about the houses 
and yards. The health of the place was generally good: very few were seriously ill, 
but there were a few chronic cases. "About the hardest trial we have here,'' said 
the kind-hearted superintendent, "is parting with the children." The little creatures 
clustered around him like a swarm of bees; it was no "make-believe love," between 
them : the very babies stretched out the little arms to go with him. 

I spent a long time about the buildings ; and from cellar to attic, and attic to cellar, 
through the whole, all things were clean and in order. The mistress had inspired the 
people with an ambition rarely found amongst the inmates of a poor-house : an emula- 
tion each of the other, in maintaining well-ordered apartments. Not a speck of dirt 
was to be seen about the wash-boards, the window-sills, or any where ; even the rooms 
for the craziest men and women, partook the general care. Here one saw that the 
oldest and least convenient buildings, might be made respectable and healthful, by pro- 
per attention to cleanliness and ventilation. All the insane were made as comfortable 
as their condition in a poor-house permitted. But here are no recoveries — here are no 
means for procuring essential benefits — what can be done is done, and it is a consola- 
tion amidst such inevitable miseries, to witness efforts for alleviating sufferings and 
evils which do not admit entire remedy. Curable cases should never be received here. 

The Philadelphia County Jail, at Philadelphia, situated in the district of Moya- 
mensing, is a massive stone building, in the Gothic style of architecture. From the 
rear of the front edifice, the extensive halls run back at right angles 5 these contain 
three tiers of cells on either side. The two upper tiers being reached by means of railed 
corridors and galleries, extending the entire length of the blocks, which are ventilated 
and lighted from the roof. One block is appropriated to prisoners before trial. The 
other receives convicts who are sentenced, and who are here furnished with employment, 
and subject to a wholesome, but not rigid discipline. These blocks are exclusively for 
the male prisoners. The women's prison, divided by a high wall and intervening 
garden, is a separate building and establishment, disconnected in all domestic arrange- 
ments, from the men's prison. This department is especially well ordered, clean, com- 
fortable, and well managed. The prisoners are supplied with suitable work — with 
books, and have.fthe benefit of moral and religious teaching, (not at the expense of the 
city or county,) from the moral instructor, who visits the prison at large, and from an 
association of pious and devoted women, who spare no pains to reclaim the offenders, 
and restore the outcast. Their benevolent efforts are not confined to the prisoners dur- 
ing their terms of detention, but they endeavor to extend care and influence beyond 
the walls of the prison. Their disinterested and faithful exertions, sometimes meet 
with their highest reward, in the good results which attend upon, and follow these labors. 
There are many in all prisons, who set at nought counsel, and scorn reproof, but this is 
no argument whereby a Christian community would find justification in refraining from 
employing every consistent and reasonable exertion to recover the sin-sick soul — to in- 
spire virtuous sentiments, to raise the fallen, and to strengthen the weak. The moral 



45 

teacher in this prison, is a missionary employed by a benevolent society. Would it be 
more than justice demands, since the courts sentence so many convicts to these 
prisons, for long terms, for the city to appoint and support a chaplain, at its own cost? 
The many hundred prisoners in the county jail, though a very unpromising class of 
pupils, certainly not the less on that account, should be faithfully visited and instructed. 
Is it not a mistake, however, to sentence to the county prison, offenders, whose crimes 
make them legitimate subjects for the Eastern Penitentiary ? Sent there, where sufficient 
and effective arrangements are made for teaching the ignorant* and nourishing the moral 
nature,, where the regulations are all in all, better adapted for their benefit, than can be 
those of the county prison ; they would be subject, not to a severer discipline, but would 
receive a stricter justice, whether we consider their rights as men, or their condemna- 
tion as criminals. 

The cells of Moyamensing Prison, are of good and convenient size, well lighted, and 
ventileied, and in winter, well warmed. They are maintained clean, and well furnished, 
and are supplied with pure water, by pipes. The food is of good quality, and of suf- 
ficient quantity. It is well prepared, and usually distributed with care. I have visited 
all the cells in this extensive prison, and conversed with the prisoners, and having spent 
the largest part of nine days in a diligent examination of their condition, and of the gene- 
ral arrangements and the discipline, I do not hesitate to say, it is conducted in a manner 
highly creditable to the officers, whose duty it is to govern and direct its affairs. There 
are some defects, but they may be chiefly remedied with due attention. Well chosen 
additions to the library are much needed, as also care in the distribution of the books. 
The prisoners were at liberty to communicate to me, their grievances, if they had any, 
and to represent their condition without restraint. The only grave complaint, and it 
was t>"ice repeated, was from a prisoner who desired a greater variety of food. Mutton 
and veal to vary his meals diet, and a larger variety of vegetables ! There were three 
or four insane men, who had been committed on various petty charges, and were not 
subjects for this prison, or any other. 

The Eastern Penitentiary contained in January about three hundred and sixty-two 
prisoners. Within two years, twenty-seven well attested cases of insanity, have been 
brought to this penitentiary. I do not wish to enter now upon an elaborate discussion 
of this subject. The gross injustice of sentencing and committing men to prison for 
erimer: committed while governed by the delusions of insanity, appears so obvious, 
that no person of the least humanity or intelligence will deny the position. Is it not 
time hat the penal code of Pennsylvania should be revised ? In this respect especially 
it demands consideration. The criminal jurisprudence of insanity has engaged much 
attention during the last thirty or forty years. France has led the way to this just 
reform, declaring with precision and perspicuity, "that there is no crime nor fault when 
the party accused was in a state of insanity at the period of the act." The penal code 
of Louisiana contains an act to the same effect, though less concisely expressed. That 
of New York lays down the same principle, with distinctness and precision : "No act 
done by a person in a state of insanity, can be punished as an offence, and no insane 
perse i can be tried and sentenced to any punishment, or be punished for any crime or 
offence committed in the state." These decrees, so philosophically just and humane, 



46 

are Wormy of being copied into every statute book of every nation. Several of the 
German principalities have long since adopted them. We have been slow in the 
United States to recognise this duty to a class of sufferers having peculiar and undenia- 
ble claims on the considerate and merciful care of every people. The English law on 
this subject is obscure; and successive acts of Parliament are both perplexing and con- 
tradictory. The high judicial authorities have from time to time declared opinions 
on these points, which, considering the times in whiph they were expressed, are dis- 
tinguished only by their errors: and these inexcusable, because, information of 
undoubted authority, was within reach. The able medical governors of the hospitals 
and asylums, were both willing and competent to define insanity. 

A vast many persons honestly believe, that most offenders for whose defence the 
plea of insanity is urged in courts of justice, are merely feigning a malady in order 
to escape the punishment consequent on crime. False pretences may be set up, and 
such have been, but to sustain these with the means of knowledge society now 
possesses in the experience of intelligent medical men, who have made this branch of their 
science a study, is not easy. The truth is, insanity is not a malady to be easily coun- 
terfeited, and those who undertake to simulate this disease, must have a very thorough 
acquaintance with its manifestations. There is no need to apprehend that in these 
cases either judge or jury may be imposed upon, if information is sought from those 
competent to determine this very grave and important question. 

The insane who have been committed to the Eastern and Western State Penitentia- 
ries, receive in those prisons such care and humane consideration, as the discipline, 
and general organization of these places permit. But granting for a moment that the 
insane do not suffer a great injustice in being committed to the state prisons, they in- 
evitably, from the plan and arrangement of these institutions, are severe sufferers by 
such imprisonment; and one finds a sufficient argument for a State Hospital in the 
unhappy circumstances of the insane patients in the prisons, and jails, and alms-houses 
of Pennsylvania; without referring even, to another class, numerous and claiming 
benevolent consideration: I mean those who are not in affluent circumstances, and who 
borne down by this domestic calamity, are not able to meet the expenses of removal to, 
and cost of support in those institutions which are already established, and which have 
proved so great a blessing to large numbers of your citizens. 

Pennsylvania has the high praise of having established a model prison on the sepa- 
rate system, which in its whole plan and government is worthy of being copied, 
wherever civilized life makes the establishment of prisons necessary, for the security 
of society. I express this opinion in a full confidence, based on extensive knowledge 
of prisons and prison systems of discipline; and I am satisfied that no unprejudiced, 
intelligent mind, can examine deliberately and faithfully, the wards of the Eastern 
Penitentiary, and not arrive at the same conclusion. The best systems, it is acknow- 
ledged, exhibit defects; and the best systems badly administered may produce the 
worst consequences ; but in the prison at Cherry Hill, one witnesses both the good 
system, and the good administration united ; and we wish not to see its harmonious 
order and just, but mild discipline, disturbed by the strange anomaly of uniting a State 



47 

Prison and a State Hospital, criminal wards and lunatic wards. We wish not to see 
misfortune punished as crime, and crime raised to a level with misfortune. 

I have said that within two years, twenty -seven insane persons have been commit- 
ted to the Eastern Penitentiary, charged with various crimes. The history of many 
of these, I have traced. I have resolved that no labor shall be spared on my part, in 
bringing facts to light. The testimony of intelligent citizens throughout the state, and 
the opinion of medical men acquainted with these cases, having had them under their 
care as patjents, settles these points definitively. Men having been known as insane 
for years, committing recent crimes, still under the influence of insane delusions, are 
every month tried, and condemned, and sentenced, precisely as if they were in pos- 
session of a sound mind, and were responsible for their speech and deeds. The fact 
of their known insanity, is often recorded on the books of the prison, by the officers 
who convey them there. One often hears the now somewhat trite assertion, "Since 
we have no State Hospital, they must go to prison, that the lives and property of the 
public may not be destroyed!" 

To this custom of sending so large numbers of insane men to the penitentiaries, may 
be referred many of the aspersions and objections which have been adduced against the 
1,4 Separate System." 

All the Poor-houses in the city and county of Philadelphia, reveal scenes of 
suffering through defective provision for the insane, and great mistakes in the care and 
management of them. 

A majority of the paupers in this county are gathered into the poor-houses, that is, if 
the city and its districts, the Northern Liberties, Southwark, Kensington, Spring Garden, 
and Penn township are included. Most of the other townships and villages in the 
county, I am informed, follow the "old custom" of "letting out the poor," or annually 
placing them in families, who agree to take them at the lowest rate, as in West Phila- 
delphia, a part of Blockley township, &c. &c. 

At Germantowyi is a Poor-house, which I have not visited since June; but I 
found it at that season, very clean and comfortable. The pleasant weather permitted 
most of the people to be abroad, including some insane men, who under a degree of 
restraint, still found pleasure in the air and in exercise. One insane woman remained 
chiefly in her apartment, which was very comfortable, well situated and neatly arranged. 
This room she had decorated in a most fantastic manner with flowers, and leaves, and 
fragments of coloured .cloth; she was tranquil and silent. There are many indigent 
persons in this township who find aid from the more direct charities of the benevolent 
citizens, and are with that assistance saved from the entire dependence consequent upon 
resorting to the poor-house. 

I think it probable that in winter this establishment must be quite too much crowded 
for health, or for that degree of comfort and accommodation which should be secured to 
the aged and infirm inmates. 

Roxbo rough Poor-house, which also receives some of the poor from Manayunk, 
I visited three times early in the summer of 1844. I found a remarkably neat, well 



48 

regulated establishment ; too much crowded indeed, even at that season, and afTbrdino- 
no suitable provision for the insane of which there were five, and one idiot ; beside 
these there were seventeen paupers. One, a young girl, in a state of dementia, was at 
times subject to violent paroxysms and was exceedingly difficult of control. Another, 
a German woman of middle age, from Manayunk, was highly excited, and for the 
safety of others, as also for her own security, was closely confined in the cells in the 
cellar. Her strength and violence made it necessary for a man to take charge of her, 
the women of the house fearing and dreading her attacks. The superintendents of this 
house expressed much dissatisfaction and uneasiness at being obliged to use these under- 
ground apartments for this purpose. They were damp and in some respeets unsafe. — 
So far as the habits of the occupants and the situation of the cells would allow, they 
were made comfortable ; and I think uniformly as the paroxysms subsided the insane 
were removed for a few hours to the upper part of the dwelling, and in suitable weather, 
taken into the enclosed yard at one end of the house. 

There were no means here for any care of the insane, that could conduct to recovery. 
The exposures of every sort to which they are subject in alms-houses, should be recol- 
lected by those who have the responsibility and power of determining if these shall last, 
or if by speedy legislation a fit asylum be opened for those who, in ceasing to exercise 
the reasoning faculties, cease from self-care, and have no more the capacity for govern- 
ing their actions. 

The Philadelphia Alms-house, west of the Schuylkill, is a vast structure built of 
stone, and capable of receiving above two thousand paupers. The main buildings alone, 
arranged in a parallelogram, cover and enclose an area of nearly ten acres. The 
average number of paupers in 1842, was fifteen hundred and forty-six, the inmates dis- 
persing somewhat in the summer, but thronging again in winter. December 7th, 1844, 
the number was seventeen hundred, of which six hundred and ninety-nine only, were 
natives of the United States. 

This vast establishment is suitably furnished, and kept in remarkably neat order. 
Ventilation is complete, and every hall and ward exhibited a uniform attention to that 
promoter of health — thorough cleanliness. I remarked the want of regular employment 
for a vast number of the inmates, and learned, with no less surprise than regret, that 
the original judicious plan of providing work for the paupers, according to the measure 
of their strength and ability, had been superseded ; and further, that the machinery, 
and other apparatus for carrying out a part of the original system, so necessary 
to preserve in any degree the morals of the place, was now on sale, I am not ac- 
quainted with the motives which have led to this determination on the part of the 
official governors of the alms-house; but it seems, according to all experience in life 
and civil economy, a great error of judgment to admit such numbers of able-bodied men 
and women to the benefits of the institution, and to maintain them either in idleness, or 
with insufficient occupation. The school was not regularly organized when I was 
there, and I could not learn that the moral training was such as most persons would 
determine to be sufficient to form the character, to correct ill-habits, and early to deepen 
impressions of truth, integrity, and good sentiments. There seemed to me too little 
education of the conscience. I am sensible that many children brought to this house, 



49 

are already imbued with pernicious ideas ; that their propensities are often vicious, and 
their habits corrupt and corrupting. All this but strengthens the argument for their 
more careful education, that so they may, if possible, be saved from successive grades 
of demoralization, and from the prisons of the land. I do not impute to those who 
direct these children, any intentional omissions of duty, believing they perform all the 
guardians require, but I suggest that perhaps the present system will admit of improve- 
ment and reform. 

The Blockley Alms-hospital is a very expensive institution, and those aids for sus- 
taining it at less cost to the city, with equal comforts for the inmates, which are adopted 
in some large establishments of this sort in other states, are not here resorted to ; for 
example, the large fruit, vegetable and flower gardens, sometimes cultivated and afford- 
ing an income of some thousand dollars to the poor-houses, are not here made available, 

Again, useful employment is afforded, as at the Rochester Alms-house, in New- York, 
during the season when labor is not practicable on the farm, by cracking stone, for 
M'Adamizing the streets and roads. 

Employment in these institutions, even if not made to yield a considerable income, 
seems of much importance. The virtuous poor are always willing to work according 
to the measure of their strength ; while the idle vagrant, compelled to labor in the alms- 
house, will be more ready to seek work abroad, where he can be paid for it. 

Of that department of the alms-house hospital, which is occupied for the insane, I 
feel great unwillingness to speak ; but I believe I am not the first to suggest that it has 
great and fatal defects. Attention has been called to the subject, through the journals 
of the city, and I trust that there will be no long delay in changing the whole order of 
this department of the institution. In one respect, and it is no little praise to accord, 
it was unexceptionable ; it was clean, thoroughly clean. 

The men's department alone for the insane, received from January 1st, 1843, to 
January 1st, 1844, three hundred and ninety-five patients; of these, it is painful to 
record, that two hundred and forty-eight cases were produced by intemperance, and were 
not strictly hospital patients. The remaining one hundred and forty-seven are recorded 
under the general head of insanity. 

Dr. Jarvis, of Louisville, (Ky.) who visited this hospital in 1837, and has since 
written a treatise on Insanity and Insane Asylums, thus describes the mode of treating 
excited patients at the Blockley Alms-house ; being a mode of restraint never at any 
period practised in our best asylums for the insane, and now, with one exception 
perhaps, disused altogether throughout the country. "A poor female was confined 
in a 'restraining chair' made of plank ; one strap confined each arm, another the 
waist, and another passed over the thighs, and held her down to her narrow prison. 
This girl was in a state of furious excitement; she was using the greatest struggles 
to extricate herself; she was kicking her feet, endeavoring to strike every one near 
her ; she was boisterous and spat on any one within reach ; she was the very image of 
a raging fury ; and we were told that she had been in this excitement for three years, 
and the same means of straps and chairs had been as long used to calm her." 



50 

My first visit to this alms-house was in June, 1844. There were many visiters at 
that time beside myself. I anticipated something like change ; amendment, since 1837. 
I supposed that in seven years the abominations of the present system, would so have 
disgusted, not only the official guardians of the house, but the whole public, that with 
one indignant voice they would have united to demand and enforce a more rational, 
not to say merciful, organization of the establishment. It was not so. 

Entering the men's wing, we found the hall and rooms vacant; except three or 
four, in which Avere several excited patients who were necessarily shut up for a time : 
for how long a time one could not tell — nor who should determine these questions of 
restraint; here is no one competent, governing director: " care-takers," are selected 
from the paupers, and of their qualifications in general for such delicate and very diffi- 
cult duties, others can judge who know somewhat of the wants and dependence of the 
insane. The patient's rooms were very clean, and sufficiently furnished. We descended 
to the exercise-yard, and directly the men were "driven forward by a keeper," into a 
small grassed area, where they might sit down, or lie down, or do what they listed. 
Some were chained, and others muffled, that they might not do mischief. As if their 
own collective vociferations were not productive of sufficient discord, a fiddler from the 
other department was brought to increase the confusion. The worst feature here to 
my thought, was the indiscriminate association of all these insane men, without the 
smallest regard to the degree of insanity, or to the different physical and mental states 
they might exhibit; those who were conscious of their own malady, who were 
conscious where they were, "in the alms-house crazy-ward," those who did not 
comprehend this, or comprehending, did not care; the drooping melancholic, the 
noisy maniac, the drivelling idiot, and the spasm-shaken epileptic, all were here 
together. 

From this scene revealing so little of appropriate and remedial care, we turned away, 
and followed our conductor to the women's department. Here, save a few, who were 
in their rooms, in states of vehement excitement, we found the patients collected into 
one large room — the hideous tumult of which beggars description. The recent and 
the established cases ; the tranquil and the excited ; the conscious and the unconscious; 
were herein one "great, monstrous, horrid company," to adopt the expressive de- 
scription of one of them ; crying, shouting, laughing, screaming, moaning, complaining, 
rolling on the floor, moping in the corners, assuming all attitudes, and rousing each other 
to higher and higher exasperation ; here they were, and here too, was sent the pauper 
musician, with the sharp, shrill, dissonant fiddle, adding discord to discord, and com- 
mingling the war of words, with the war of sounds, in rivalry of Babel I But this does 
not complete the picture. In a remote part of this large room, in a " tranquilizing 
chair," that monstrous invention, which merits a place with the instruments of inquisi- 
torial torment, or the machines of rack and torture employed in the middle ages, by 
regal despotism, in a tranquilizing chain was fastened a young and beautiful girl, in 
the highest state of frenzy, yet, now and then, becoming, for a few moments, tranquil. 
She smiled sweetly, in her woe, and uttered half sentences, that moved many to tears. 
It was a sad and pitiable sight. Closely bound, hands, feet, and waist, she could only 
move the head and neck a little. Her beautiful hair fell in waves upon her neck, and 



51 

there was a charm in her appearance, notwithstanding the wildness of the eye, that at- 
tracted all strangers. The "board of guardians," not less than the more infrequent visi- 
ters, drew towards her. I asked who she was, and whence she came. No one could tell. 
She had been found wandering in the outskirts of the city, and was brought there a few 
days before, raving mad ! I saw her once again, some weeks later ; she was still highly 
excited, and more unmanageable than before. 1 was consoled, to learn, subsequently, 
that her friends had traced her from the upper part of the county, above Frankford, and 
had removed her home. A merciful change, but how much more merciful, if she could 
have had the benefit of skilfully directed hospital care. 

My second visit to the alms-house, produced new distrusts of the management of the 
lunatic department, and confirmed first opinions. I found in the men's ward, a poor 
man in a "tranquilizing chair," whose countenance wore an expression of agonized 
suffering I can never forget. His limbs were tightly bound, his legs, body, arms, 
shoulders, all were closely confined, and his head also. Feeble efforts to move were 
broken down by this inexorable machine. Upon the head, sustained by the apparatus, 
which confined the movements of the neck, was a quantity of broken ice. This, as it 
gradually melted, flowed over his person, which however, was in some degree protected 
from the wet by a stiff cape, either of canvass or leather. It was a very hot day, but 
he was deadly cold, and oh, how suffering! To suffer would have been his lot, perhaps, 
under any circumstances; but this treatment, " employed to keep him still," was a 
fearful aggravation of inconceivable misery. I asked how long he had been under this 
restraint. "Four days !" What, day and night? "No, at night we take him off and 
strap him upon the bed." How long will you keep hirnso? "Till he is quiet." 
How long have you ever kept the patients in this condition? "Nine days, 1 believe, 
is the longest. ' It does not require much knowledge of the human frame, and of its 
capabilities to endure suffering, and resist destructive and injurious influences, to know 
whether such a mode of treating insane persons is remedial and restoring in its effects, 
or whether it does not seriously endanger life, and lay the foundation of various fatal 
ailments, in addition to the malady under which they are suffering. I am sure the 
intelligent and skilful medical men in Philadelphia, will concur in the opinion, that this 
department of the alms-house calls for speedy and entire reconstruction. This can be 
accomplished with but little difficulty, and at small additional expense. To doubt the 
willingness of the citizens of Philadelphia to promote this much needed change, would 
be to distrust that humanity and liberality which has never been found deficient, when 
benevolent objects have been presented for their consideration and support. Why the 
alms-house alone, of the numerous public charities of Philadelphia, should show a 
condition so adverse to the objects it proposes to accomplish, is a problem I cannot 
resolve. 

If idleness is the nurse of vice and crime, it would seem consistent with the purest 
political economy, to provide employment for all who are able to labor in the alms- 
house. If education is important to the youthful mind, especially moral culture, then 
a more careful attention to the school would be a public as well as individual good. If 
benevolent institutions for the protection of the friendless, and the recovery of the sick 
and disabled, to health and usefulness, are recognized as important and necessary in 



52 

crowded cities, and a densely inhabited country, then it is well that these should be so 
established as to procure for the recipients of charity, all the benefits which they can 
be made capable of securing. 

The exciting causes of insanity in large cities, are numerous. The poor and indi- 
gent are also numerous. If an extensive alms-house is necessary to receive the crowds, 
the thousands of sane paupers, surely a hospital, on a curative foundation, is also 
necessary, and to be preferred to a mere receptacle. In the one case, the maniac may 
be restored to reason and usefulness ; in the other, there is a possibility, but it rests 
upon slight probability. It may be argued by some, that many who are sent to this 
hospital, are the victims of their own vices and indiscretions, and are undeserving the 
special care solicited. Many of them are unworthy; in all probability the majority 
may have abused their privileges, wasted property, and impaired their health by indul- 
gences and excesses,, which must be condemned. But shall not these find mercy, and 
pity, and succour? You do not abandon the criminal in the jail; the juvenile offender 
tinds a "Refuge;" and the halls of your penitentiary echo to the voices of those who, 
by earnest counsels and instruction, strive to reclaim the convict from perverse and 
criminal habits, to rectitude and duty. Let not the erring, perhaps once vicious insane, 
alone be abandoned. 

One of your own citizens has not long since said publicly, what none have attempted 
to disprove: "That unless means are taken to discover the real condition of the insane 
in the alms-house hospital, the people of this community will justly incur the infamy 
of sustaining a moral nuisance, an establishment disgraceful to humanity, and a libel 
upon the present state of our knowledge of the proper treatment of mental disease." 

The city and county of Philadelphia needs its own hospital and asylum for the 
treatment and protection of the insane ; as the cities of New York and Boston, sensible 
of the necessity of such provision for this class of their poor, have theirs. All large 
cities, as witness those just referred to, and not less Philadelphia and Baltimore, need 
for their own dependent citizens, a well established hospital. 

It is but few years since the Alms-house of Suffolk county, Boston, revealed scenes 
of horror and abomination rarely exhibited, and such as we trust are now, in the mass 
at least, no where to be found in the United States. These mad-men and mad-women 
were the most hopeless cases, of long standing, and their malady was confirmed by the 
grossest mismanagement. 

The citizens at length were roused to the enormity of these abuses ; to the monstrous 
injustice of herding these maniacs in a building filled with cages, behind the bars of 
which, all loathsome and utterly offensive, they howled, and gibbered, and shrieked day 
and night, like wild beasts raving in their dens. They knew neither decency nor 
quiet, nor uttered any thing but blasphemous imprecations, foul language, and heart- 
piercing groans. The most sanguine friends of the hospital plan, hoped no more for 
these wretched beings than to procure for them greater decency and comfort ; recovery 
of the mental faculties for these was not expected. The new establishment was opened, 
and organized as a curative hospital. The insane were gradually removed, disen- 



53 

cumbered of their chains, and freed from the foul remnants of garments that failed to se- 
cure decent covering. They were bathed, clothed, and placed in comfortable apartments, 
under the management of Dr. Butler, now superintendent of the Retreat, at Hartford. 
In a few months behold the result : recovering health, order, general quiet, and measured 
employment. Visit the hospital when you please, at u no set time or season," but 
at any hour of any day, you will find these patients decently clothed, comfortably lodged, 
and carefully attended. They exercise in companies or singly, in the spacious halls : 
they may be seen assembled reading the papers of the day ; or books loaned from the 
library ; some labor in the yards and about the grounds ; some busy themselves in the 
vegetable, and some in the flower-garden ; some are employed within doors, in the 
laundry, in the kitchen, in the ironing-room, in the sewing-room. In every part of the 
house a portion of the patients find happiness and physical health, by well-chosen, well- 
directed employment. Care is had that this does not fatigue, that it is not mistimed : 
and the visiter sees, amidst this company of busy ones, some of the incurables who so 
long inhabited the cages, and wore away life for years in anguish, encompassed by 
indescribable horrors. And though, of this once most miserable company, less than one- 
sixth were restored to the right, use of their reasoning faculties, with but few excep- 
tions, they are capable of receiving pleasure, of engaging in some sort of employment, 
and of being taken to the chapel for religious services, where they are orderly and seri- 
ous. Such, to the insane paupers of Suffolk county, Boston, have been, and continue 
to be, the benefits of the hospital treatment. Than theirs, no condition could be worse 
before removal from the old building; now none can be better for creatures of broken 
health and impaired faculties, incompetent to guide and govern themselves, but yielding 
to gentle influences and watchful care. 

Gentlemen, I have endeavored to show you in the preceding pages, — First, that the 
provision for the poor and indigent insane of your state, is inappropriate, insufficient, 
and unworthy of a civilized and christian people : Second, that it is unjust and unjusti- 
fiable to convict as criminals and incarcerate those in prisons, who, bereft of reason, 
are incapable of that self-direction and aetion, by which a man is made responsible for 
the deeds he may commit : Third, I have, in the description of your alms-houses, 
adding the opinion of the most intelligent men of your state, shown that these are, in 
all essential respects, unfit for the insane : and that while they may, with uncommon 
care and devotedness on the part of the superintendents, and other official persons, be 
made decent receptacles, they cannot be made curative hospitals nor asylums, for 
affording adequate protection for the insane : Fourth, still less can these ends be 
accomplished in private families, even where pecuniary prosperity affords the means of 
supplying many wants. But in those where this calamitous malady is united with 
poverty and pinching want, it is barely within the bounds of probability that the patient 
should recover. There is then but one alternative — condemn your needy citizens to 
become the life-long victims of a terrible disease, or provide remedial care in a State 
Hospital. Let this be established on a comfortable, but strictly economical foundation. 
Expend not one dollar on tasteful architectural decorations. In this establishment, let 
nothing be for ornament, but every thing for use. Choose your location where the 
most good can be accomplished effectually, at the least cost. Let economy only not 
degenerate into meanness. Every dollar indiscreetly applied, is a robbery of the poor 



54 

and needy, and adds a darker shade to the vice of extravagance, in misappropriation of 
the public funds. 

Choose a healthful situation where you can command at least one hundred acres, 
and better if a larger tract, of productive land, mostly capable of cultivation. Let 
the supply and access to pure water, be ample and convenient : also consider the 
cost of fuel, which is a large item in the annual expenses. Furnish your establishment 
by means chiefly of convict labor, from your two state penitentiaries, with mattresses, 
bed-clothing, chairs, &c. &c. You thus secure a sale for their work, and get good 
articles at reasonable cost for your own use. You will recollect that at some future 
time other hospitals will be needed and demanded, but let the location of the Jirst have 
reference to sparing as far as possible to the poor at large, the heavy charge of travelling 
expenses. A substantial brick, or unhewn stone building, not more than three-stories 
high with the basement, to save labor, and the consequent multiplying of attendants, 
having the officers' apartments in the centre, and those of the male and female patients 
in the two wings respectively, will be found most commodious. Numerous minor 
considerations will, at a suitable time, receive a share of attention. But one thing 
should not be overlooked in a hospital designed to benefit the people at large. In 
this state it must be recollected that the medical superintendent, the governing, resident 
physician, who alone can be head of such an institution, and also his assistant, must 
have practical acquaintance with both the German and English languages, which 
are spoken in this commonwealth. Nearly half the insane of the lower classes, east 
of the mountains, are Germans, and cannot, in general, utter a sentence of English; 
and the medical adviser would find no little embarrassment in directing the moral 
training and treatment of his patients, except he could speak their language fluently, 
and was familiar, by residence and practice, with some of their peculiarities and local 
customs. I have perceived the importance and value of this, from being frequently 
accompanied to the poor-house hospitals by the attending physicians ; and as they have 
mixed with the inmates, addressing one in one language, one in another, I have seen 
that in a State Hospital for the Insane in Pennsylvania, it is absolutely necessary to pos- 
sess these qualifications in order to be really successful. 

If the mere outward manifestations of disease were to be studied, and decided on, 
if no other influence were to reach the patient than a medical prescription for a symp- 
tom which could not be mistaken, it would be of little consequence in what language 
the physician conversed, or whether he possessed at all the gift of speech ; but as much 
beside is to be embraced in intelligent, skilful hospital practice, your physician for 
the State Asylum must speak readily the two languages of the country, at least. The 
medical superintendent of a hospital for the insane, needs not only a quick perceptive 
faculty in detecting the characterizing symptoms of the various forms of this malady, 
but adding to this an acquaintance with the social habits of both the German and 
English classes, he should possess energy, promptness of action, and ready determina- 
tion ; he should have active business habits, and devotion to his profession. The very 
onerous duties which devolve on him will not nourish self-indulgence, or allow leisure 
for various pursuits: he must consecrate himself to the work, and he must concentrate 
all his energies, physical and mental, to promote the success and prosperity of the 



55 

institution; making it so far as human means are concerned, an asylum where the 
curable may find health, and the incurable alleviation and solace for their sufferings. 

Gentlemen, of the Legislature of Pennsylvania, I appeal to your hearts and your 
understanding; to your moral and to your intellectual perceptions; I appeal to you as 
legislators and as citizens ; I appeal to you as men, and as fathers, sons, and brothers ; 
spare, I pray you, by wise and merciful legislation now, those many, who if you deny 
the means of curative treatment and recovery to health, will by your decisions, and 
on your responsibility, be condemned to irrecoverable, irremediable insanity : to worse 
than uselessness and grinding dependence; to pain and misery, and abject, brutalizing 
conditions, too terrible to contemplate ; too horrible to relate ! 

Grant to the exceeding urgency of their case, what you would rightly refuse to 
expediency alone. Benevolent citizens of your commonwealth were the first of civil- 
ized people to establish a society for alleviating the miseries of prisons ; shall Penn- 
sylvanians be last and least in manifesting sensibility to the wants of the poverty- 
stricken maniac ? Is the claim of the Lunatic less than that of the Criminal ? Are 
the spiritual and physical wants of the guilty to be more humanely ministered to, than 
the bodily and mental necessities of the insane ? You pause long, and hesitate to con- 
demn to death the blood-stained murderer ; will you less relentingly condemn to a 
living-death, the unoffending victims of a dreadful malady? 

The wise and illustrious Founder of Pennsylvania, laid broad the basis of her gov- 
ernment in justice and integrity: now — while her sons with recovering strength, are 
replacing the shaken Keystone of the Arch, may they, as in the beginning, find their 
Salvation, — Truth, and their Palladium, — Righteousness ! 

Respectfully submitted, 

D. L. DIX. 

Harrisburg, February 3, 1845. 



APPENDIX. 



Table showing the comparative expense of supporting old and recent cases of in- 
sanity, from which we learn the economy of placing patients in institutions in 
the early periods of disease; from the report of the Massachusetts State Hospital. 



p 

c 

•-•3 

o 

CB 
Efi 

CD 

en 


-i 

CD 
02 
CD 

3 

Ch 
CD 

CD 


Time insane, in 
years. 


Total expense, at 
$100 a year, be- 
fore entering the 
hospital, & $132 
a year since ; last 
year $120. 


« ? 

a c 
en 3 
CD 3 
co a" 
'a . cd 

3" *"» 

—l CD 

to 2 

CD CD 
CU 3 


►i 

CD 
02 

CD 

P 

orq 

CD 


CD 3 

SL cd 

02 ^. 

" 3 

02 

S3 

3 

CD 

V. 

3' 


Cost of support, at 
$2.30 per week. 


2 


69 


28 


$3,212 00 


1,622 


30 


7 


$16 10 


7 


48 


17 


2,004 00 


1,624 


34 


20 


46 00 


8 


60 


21 


2,504 00 


1,625 


51 


32 


73 60 


12 


47 


25 


2,894 00 


1,635 


23 


28 


64 40 


18 


71 


34 


3,794 00 


1,642 


42 


40 


92 00 


19 


59 


18 


2,204 00 


1,643 


55 


14 


32 20 


21 


39 


16 


1,993 00 


1,645 


63 


36 


82 80 


27 


47 


16 


1,994 00 


1,649 


22 


40 


92 00 


44 


56 


26 


2,982 00 


1,650 


36 


28 


64 40 


45 


60 


25 


2,835 00 


1,658 


36 


14 


32 20 


102 


53 


25 


2,833 00 


1,660 


21 


16 


36 80 


133 


44 


13 


1,431 00 


1,661 


19 


27 


62 10 


176 


55 


20 


2,486 00 


1,672 


40 


11 


25 70 


209 


39 


16 


1,964 00 


1,676 


23 


23 


52 90 


223 


50 


20 


2,364 00 


1,688 


23 


11 


25 70 


260 


47 


16 


2,112 00 


1,690 


23 


27 


62 10 


278 


49 


10 


1,424 00 


1,691 


37 


20 


46 00 


319 


53 


10 


1,247 00 


1,699 


30 


28 


64 40 


347 


58 


14 


1,644 00 


1,705 


24 


17 


39 10 


367 


40 


12 


1,444 00 


1,706 


55 


10 


23 00 


400 


43 


14 


1,644 00 


1,709 


17 


10 


23 00 


425 


48 


13 


2,112 00 


1,715 


19 


40 


92 00 


431 


36 


13 


1,412 00 


1,716 


35 


48 


110 40 


435 


55 


15 


1,712 00 


1,728 


52 


55 


126 50 


488 


37 


17 


1,912 00 


1,737 


30 


33 


75 90 




454 


$54,157 00 


635 


$1,461 30 



Average expense of old cases, ... 

Whole expense of twenty-five old cases, 

Average expense of recent cases, - 

Whole expense of twenty-five recent cases till recovered, 



$2,166 20 

54,157 00 

58 45 

1,461 30 



5S 

From Dr. Awl's reports of the Ohio Institution, we extract the following tables : 

In the report of 1840, the number of years that the twenty-five old cases had been 
insane, was 413 ; the whole expense of their support during that time, $47,590 ; the 
average, $1,903 60. The time that the twenty-five recent cases had been confined, 
was 556 weeks ; the expense, $1,400 ; the average $56. 

In 1841, whole cost of twenty-five old cases, - - - $49,248 00 

Average, -------- 1,969 00 

Whole cost of twenty-five recent cases, - 1,330 50 

Average, - •♦ - - - - - - 52 22 

In 1842, whole expense of twenty-five old cases, - $50,611 00 

Average, -------- 2.020 00 

Whole expense of twenty-five recent cases, - - - - 1,130 00 

Average, - - - - - - - - 45 20 

In this institution, in 1843, twenty old cases had cost, - - $44,782 00 

Average cost of old cases, .. - 2,239 10 

Whole expense of twenty recent cases, till recovered, - - 1,308 30 

Average cost of recent cases, - • - - - 65 41 

In the Massachusetts State Lunatic Asylum, in 1843, twenty-five old 

cases had cost, ------- $54,157 00 

Average expense of old cases, - - - - - 2,166 20 

Whole expense of twenty-five recent cases, till recovered, - - 1,461 30 

Average expense of recent cases, - - - - - 58 45 

In the Ohio Lunatic Asylum, in 1844, twenty-five old cases had cost, $35,464 00 

Average expense of old cases, ----- 1,418 56 

Whole expense of twenty-five recent cases, - - - 1,608 00 

Average expense of recent cases, - ~ - - - 64 32 

In the Maine Lunatic Hospital, in 1842, twelve old cases had cost, •■ $25,300 00 

Average expense of old cases, - - - - - 2, 108 33 

Whole expense of twelve recent cases, - 426 00 

Average expense of recent cases, - - - - - 35 50 

In the Hospital at Staunton, Va., twenty old cases had cost, - $41,633 00 

Average expense of old cases, - - - - - 2,081 65 

Whole expense of twenty recent cases, - 1,265 00 

Average expense of recent cases, - - - - r 63 25 

The results of this table are so striking, and show so conclusively the importance of 
early admission to the insane hospitals, that many other institutions have instituted the 
same inquiry with similar results. 



59 



Table (from Dr. JlwVs sixth report for 1844, of the Stale Hospital, at Columbus, 
Ohio,) showing the comparative expense of supporting old and recent cases of in- 
sanity. 



3 

p 

o 


Present a 


Duration, 
of insa 
fore ad 


Cost of 
before ad 
at $2 pe 


Number ( 
cases. 


> 

P 


Duration 
sanity b( 
mission. 


Time, in 
spent in 
lum. 


Cost of cure, at 
$3 per week. 


fD 

as 


OS 


•Saw. 


^ CO ■£< 

pr 2 o 


w 

>i 

in 
o 

CD 

3 




P £. 

Zt 3 
I I 


1 2 * 

1 P O) 

1 «■ 


1 


42 


18 


$1,872 00 


1 


29 


1 month. 


j 20 


$60 00 


2 


45 


11 


1,144 00 


2 


22 


6 " 


18 


54 00 


3 


35 


13 


1,352 00 


3 


35 


5 " 


15 


45 00 


4 


40 


12 


1,248 00 


4 


26 


4 " 


9 


27 00 


5 


38 


15 


1,560 00 


5 


41 


8 " 


43 


129 00 


6 


38 


10 


1,040 00 


6 


37 


5 " 


16 


48 00 


7 


42 


10 


1,040 00 


7 


27 


7 " 


59 


177 00 


8 


40 


15 


1,560 00 


8 


34 


4 " 


15 


45 00 


9 


40 


20 


2,080 00 


9 


31 


1 " 


| 18 


54 00 


10 


40 


9 


936 00 


10 


22 


9 " 


13 


39 00 


11 


50 


10 


1,040 00 


11 


18 


1 week. 


11 


33 00 


12 


48 


11 


1,144 00 


12 


29 


2 months. 


52 


156 00 


13 


45 


9 


936 00 


13 


23 


5 " 


25 


75 00 


14 


35 


10 


1,040 00 


14 


24 


8 " 


I 5 


15 00 


15 


57 


27 


2,808 00 


15 


28 


2 " 


; 13 


39 00 


16 


57 


10 


1,040 00 


16 


45 


4 '* 


14 


42 00 


17 


28 


13 


1,352 00 


17 


28 


4 " 


26 


78 00 


18 


49 


21 


2,184 00 


18 


41 


1 " 


23 


69 00 


19 j 


43 


15 


1,560 00 


19 


24 


3 " 


15 


45 00 


20 


45 


10 


1,040 00; 


20 


32 


2 " 


15 


45 00 


21 


29 


14 


1,456 00! 


21 


20 


5 " 


33 ( 


99 00 


22 


33 


10 


1,040 00 


22 


20 


8 " 


29 ! 


87 00 


23 


40 


28 


2,912 OOi 


23 


21 


5 " 


8 


24 00 


24 | 


39 


10 


1,040 00 


24 


31 


5 days. 


16 


48 00 


25 1 


40 ! 


10 


1,040 00 


25 


25 


10 months. 


25 


75 00 



$35,464 00 



$1,608 00 



Average number of years for each case before admission into the asylum, 13|. 
Average number of weeks spent in the asylum, 2I3. 
Average cost of each case before admission into the asylum, $1,418 56. 
Average cost of each recovery in the asylum, $64 32. 



